


Seducing Mr. Solo

by DarkKnightDarkSide



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Age Difference, Awkward Ben Solo, Awkward Sexual Situations, Come Eating, Creampie, Creampie eating, Cum Eating, Cunnilingus, Derogatory Language, Dominant Rey, F/M, Fellatio, Light angst with a HEA, Masturbation, Nipple Play, Poor Ben doesn’t know what hit him, Rey is a huge tease, Secret Relationship, Semi-Public Sex, Seriously Ben masturbates so much in this fic, Slow Burn, Submissive Ben Solo, Teacher-Student Relationship, Teasing, Temptation, Unprotected Sex, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Penetration, cumming inside, divorce (mention of), rey has trust issues, rey is a brat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2020-10-05 23:20:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20497022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkKnightDarkSide/pseuds/DarkKnightDarkSide
Summary: Ben is a psychology professor at Chandrilla Tech, but he's feeling burnt out by his job and his life. Rey is his confident and insanely attractive neighbor. There's just one little problem: she's also a student in his class. But Rey knows exactly what she wants from the handsome Mr. Solo, and she's willing to risk it all to get it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "The way you move is like a full on rainstorm  
And I'm a house of cards  
You're the kind of reckless that should send me running  
But I kinda know that I won't get far"  
\- Taylor Swift

  
  


  
  


It was the peak of summer, and the humid air made everything feel sticky and pressed too close together. 

Ben Solo put down the book he was reading,  _ The Laws of Human Nature _ , and moved to the window to see about the commotion coming from across the street. 

There was a U-Haul van parked in the driveway of the brown ranch style home that seemed to change occupants every few months. This was the third moving truck that had arrived in two years. 

Ben didn’t know why it grabbed his attention each time, it wasn’t like he was friendly with any of his neighbors. There was a part of him, he supposed, that did enjoy observing people - their quirks, their small mannerisms, and the subtle tells that revealed their true feelings when they didn’t realize someone was watching. Yes, people still fascinated him, even if he had grown weary of talking about the subject. 

It wasn’t the talking itself. That part he enjoyed and always had. It was the sea of glazed over eyes he dreaded, the bored stares, and the ones that didn’t even try to feign interest, openly texting or twittering or whatever it was kids were doing these days. 

He watched through the blinds as two women walked from the lowered metal ramp of the moving van, each hoisting a large cardboard box, and disappeared through the open garage door into the house. One of the women was petite and wore her short dark hair in a bob. The other was a blonde with braided buns on either side of her head, wearing a black midriff shirt with COACHELLA in big block letters on the back. 

They were young, that much was obvious. He was trying to decide if they were a couple or just roommates when a third woman appeared from inside the cavernous van. 

A slim brunette dressed in the shortest jean cut offs Ben had ever seen, she was pushing a hand-truck stacked with far too many boxes. It wobbled dangerously as she navigated it down the ramp and she strained to steady the topmost box. But leaving only one hand on the cart meant it was harder to steer; when it veered toward an uneven patch in the cracked concrete, the front left wheel locked in resistance and sent the cart lurching forward, boxes crashing to the ground. 

Her companions were still inside the house, and Ben watched as she stamped her foot in anger and seemed to be letting loose a cloud of expletives. She knelt down and began collecting the various miscellany that had spilled from the bruised cardboard boxes, now spread across the driveway. 

It really wasn’t like him at all, since he was much more the type to stand back and wait, but something was pulling Ben across the living room and onto his porch before he understood what was happening. He wanted to  _ help _ , he realized, to his own great surprise. 

She was on her hands and knees picking spoons out of the grass when he walked up, and didn’t seem to notice him approach. Ben swallowed and tried to avoid seeing how her barely-there jean shorts rode up her tanned legs, exposing the bottom crease of her ass cheeks. The heat he felt against his face was not just from the beating sun. 

“Ahem,” he cleared his throat, eyes glued to the toppled hand-truck on her left. 

“Oh, hi there, who are you?” Came the reply, in a cheerful British accent. 

Her directness threw him almost as much as her exposed skin had. 

She was standing back to her feet now and he looked at her face for the first time, a jolt of electricity buzzing down his spine. This girl was fucking  _ gorgeous _ . She had almond shaped hazel eyes that could be considered sultry, if not for the contrast of her wide friendly smile and freckled, delicate nose. She was so, so pretty, but she was also so  _ young _ . He came here to help her (God only knew why), not to ogle her like an old pervert, he reminded himself. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and, after too long of a pause, stuck out his hand for a shake.  _ Did anyone still  _ ** _do_ ** _ that,  _ he wondered _ , outside of job interviews and meeting someone’s parents? _

She looked down at his outstretched hand then back up again, although not right to his face. Her eyes seemed to trail from his wrist to his bare forearm, up his shoulder and  _ then _ to his face, and she was smirking. Why, oh why, did he leave the safety of his air conditioned house and why, oh why, was she  _ smirking _ ? 

He didn’t have long to wonder since she placed her own tiny hand in his and shook it with a surprising grip. 

“I’m Rey,” she said, elongating the vowels in her crisp accent. 

Ben realized this was the part where he was supposed to give his own name, and she was standing there, blinking those clear hazel eyes at him expectantly. 

He cleared his throat. “I’m Ben. From across the street. It’s nice to meet you, Rey. Just moving in?”

She giggled, and the obviousness of his question made him want to smack his own forehead. 

“Yeah, trying to anyway. Clearly there’s room for improvement.” She gestured to the boxes strewn around her.

“Let me give you a hand then,” Ben knelt down to lift one labeled  _ Kitchen _ back up and onto the dolly, which he righted once more. 

“Brilliant, thanks.” She bent over again to grab a stray whisk and Ben distracted himself by going to fetch the box that had fallen furthest away. This one had dropped on its side onto the concrete, and the seal of packing tape had split, pouring all the contents over the walkway. 

This box was labeled  _ Nightstand _ and contained a random assortment of clutter, from a purple sleep mask, to a small photo album, to a bottle of melatonin. 

“If you need some packing tape to reinforce these, I might have some in the house,” Ben told her as he plunked a copy of  _ The Hunger Games _ back into the box. 

“Thanks, you’ve really been a big help.”

He was putting the last item into the box and was about to close it when something in the grass glinted and caught his eye. 

He bent down to scoop up what he thought was maybe jewelry, or an overlooked spoon judging from the metallic gleam. 

“Oops, one last —-“ his words were cut off when he realized what he was holding. 

The object was shaped like an egg, entirely smooth chrome except for a small button on the top. 

He was mortified to realize he had her vibrator in his hand. 

His new neighbor, who was, judging by her looks, at least ten years his junior, and who liked to wear shorts that could pass as underwear, had a vibrator.

A vibrator he was now cradling in broad daylight on the front lawn. 

Blood pricked at his ears, but he tried to be smooth. If he just turned around and put it into the box quietly, she wouldn’t know and he could forget this ever happened. 

He jumped what felt like a foot in the air when he saw she was standing right behind him. He attempted to cover the egg in his large palm, but she had already seen. Far, far worse, when he tried to conceal it he had pressed too tightly and hit the on switch. It hummed to life with the force of a jackhammer, buzzing against his hand. 

Was there maybe a large pit somewhere around he could just jump into and never come out? 

“I’ll take that! Wouldn’t want to lose track of something so important,” she said with a wink.

Ben was nonplussed. She didn’t look embarrassed at all! In fact she looked... amused? 

He on the other hand, was sure he was doing his best impression of a ripe tomato. 

“Oh, erm, here you go,” he stammered out, slipping the little chrome egg into her palm, nearly dropping it as it continued to twitch spastically. His fingertips brushed hers as she took it and that was not helping. She switched it off deftly, with not even a blush on her cheeks. 

He had to go.  _ Now _ . 

“I uh...I left my coffee pot on so...” he mumbled.  _ Coffee? In this heat? _ She’d never buy it. 

He was grateful when she didn’t call out his lame excuse. She only gave him that same devious smirk again, looking quite pleased with herself for some unfathomable reason. 

“Hey, do what you gotta do, I always say,” she told him, flicking her eyes downward quickly then back up. “Thanks again for your help, Ben!” 

“Oh...yeah, you’re welcome,” he said, nearly halfway across the lawn already. 

Back inside his house, the air conditioning trickled over him and he breathed a sigh of relief. It was going to be a long summer. 

* * *

Even though Rey was right across the street, they didn’t see much of each other as the days went on. Ben kept to himself, as usual, and Rey and her roommates seemed to spend most of their time out of the house, enjoying life. 

Was there ever a time when he was that carefree? If there was, he couldn’t remember it now. 

He tried to put the incident with the vibrator out of his mind. Maybe it wasn’t even hers, he told himself. There were two other women living in the house after all. It’s not like it had a name tag on it. Or maybe it wasn’t what he assumed it was. He couldn’t imagine what else it might be but wouldn’t anyone be humiliated if a perfect stranger found their sex toy? Rey certainly hadn’t seemed to be. 

Ben was used to studying people. It was his job to understand the human mind, and it was fascinating to him. There was something about Rey that exuded the confidence of a much older woman, he could tell that much right away. 

Whatever happened that day in the yard, it wouldn’t do at all to dwell on thoughts of her, young enough that she could definitely be his student, pulling down those tiny jean shorts to slip her hand inside, holding the vibrator...

_ Don’t be a creep, Solo! _ He chided himself. Even if it  _ had _ been over a year since he got laid, before his ex-wife had moved out, he wouldn’t stoop to that level. Right?

Of course he wouldn’t. 

So he certainly didn’t stand by the window when he caught a glimpse of her a week after they met, checking the mailbox in those obscene cut offs, bending all the way over to reach a package that had been stuffed to the back. He absolutely did not get a hard-on from seeing her tight, pert little ass, practically wiggling and pointed right in his direction as if she  _ wanted _ him to see. 

When he jerked off later that night, the bluish glow of the computer screen cast against his skin, and he clicked on “Petite brunette gets hammered by huge cock,” he was  _ definitely not _ imagining her spread pussy being filled up by a thick seven inches while he spurted his cum over his fisted hand. 

He was just a bit lonely, was all, like any man in his situation would be. Loneliness made people do strange things, he thought, as he cleaned himself up and clicked quickly, sheepishly off the page. 

* * *

One evening in early August, just after a thunderstorm had briefly broken the crushing heat, Ben was out for a run. 

He had been a runner in college and then fallen out of the habit during his marriage, when complacency sat in. Now, eight months after the divorce was finalized, he found he needed something to channel his extra time into and decided to make a few positive changes. Running seemed like the natural choice, and it was cathartic to feel the slap of the pavement under his feet again. When he ran, everything that worried him got left behind. 

He was just ending his second loop and started on the cool down as he approached his front porch. The sound of yelling and laughter drew his attention across the street, and what he saw stopped him in his tracks. 

Rey and her roommates were darting through the side yard of their house, in the middle of an epic water balloon fight. Two large buckets were stationed on either side of their porch, and he watched as one of the women - the blonde - dove her hand in for a red balloon, and hurled it in Rey’s direction. 

She ducked, but too late, and it was a direct hit to her chest. The way she squealed in delight reverberated wickedly through his body, straight to his toes. She was only wearing a white bikini, with silver hoops that the strings tied into just below each shoulder. Her tanned skin glistened with droplets of water that shimmered in the evening glow, and she looked so smooth  _ everywhere _ . The nylon fabric of the brief bottoms rode into the taut split of her ass as she ran, and her perky tits bounced with every step. The top became even more sheer when wet, and though it was difficult to see at that distance, he could imagine her hard nipples popping out from the chill.

Then they weren’t the only thing that was hard. 

_ Oh God _ , he thought,  _ Was he trapped in a bad porno??  _

There was no way this was happening in real life. Nothing like this ever happened to him. Even his ex-wife preferred missionary with the lights out; compared to his meager experience, seeing this felt positively filthy. 

He stood there entirely too long to be decent, and then he realized she had caught him staring, and she was looking back with her hands on her hips. His heart hammered thunderously in his chest and he gave a weak little wave. He hoped desperately she couldn’t tell he had an erection through his running shorts. 

Finally his legs elected to move again, and he retreated into the house. If humans had been born with tails, his would be tucked between his legs right about now. 

He asked himself what the fuck he was doing repeatedly, but this time when he ran his soapy hand over his aching cock in the shower, he couldn’t even pretend it wasn’t to the memory of her golden skin, dripping wet. 

* * *

The rest of the summer passed without much incident. Part of him hoped he would get the chance to talk to her again like a normal human being, and the other part of him hoped her tenancy would last as briefly as the others, relieving him of the guilt of lusting after a much younger girl who obviously thought of him as a creep. 

As the days began to cool into Autumn, he started his preparations for the new school year. It was his seventh year of teaching at Chandrilla Tech, and like most parts of his life, it was way past time to re-evaluate. 

He had studied psychology when he was in school because it never ceased to fascinate him. The human brain and how it makes sense of the world was the origin of literally every other discipline - history, art, science; all these domains and more owed their existence to psychology, when it came down to it. He had fallen in love with the paradoxes and the pitfalls of cognition, and wanted to share this passion with others. 

Unfortunately, he found out after entering the teaching field that most 20-somethings were more interested in discovering a reliable weed dealer than they were their own cognitive biases. Psychology was seen as a “soft science,” a class to take to fill a credit spot that you could pass with your eyes closed, so his course always seemed to attract a bevy of airheads and underachievers hoping to skate through the semester without cracking a book. 

After seven years, he was definitely growing jaded, and that was the kiss of death for any professor. He knew he should try to move on, to find work that excited him again, but the thought of acquiring more student loan debt to be able to practice clinically, or worse - working for corporate America - was enough to keep him stuck firmly in his rut. 

Ben sighed, and went back to editing his syllabus. 

* * *

Finally the first day of classes had arrived, and it was starting off swimmingly for Ben. First his power had gone out overnight, leaving his phone battery at 16% when he woke up. Thankfully the alarm had sounded as planned, but he ended up running late anyway due to spilling coffee on his pants at the first stoplight and having to go back home to change. 

By the time he got to campus, he was in a sour mood and in no way ready to field the barrage of first day questions. 

“Do I  _ have _ to buy the textbook?” 

“Is our midterm project  _ really _ worth 40% of our grade??”

“How strict is the attendance policy?”

And on and on it would go. He knew from experience if he didn’t set boundaries right from the start the students would look for any loophole to exploit that would make things easier. No, it was better to come off as a hardass in the beginning than too soft and end up making more work for yourself in the long run. 

He steeled himself outside the lecture hall door and pulled down the hem of his black cardigan, ready to face the fray. 

“Good morning, class, I’m Professor Solo, and welcome to—-“

He stopped short, overcome by a tidal wave of panic, because there in the front row, wearing a bubblegum colored mini dress with her hair in  _ fucking pigtails for Christ’s sake _ , was his ridiculously hot, ridiculously young, next door neighbor, Rey. 

He was so unbelievably fucked. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to [monsterleadmehome](https://archiveofourown.org/users/monsterleadmehome), [kylrns](https://archiveofourown.org/users/minyeo/profile), and [sunshinexxmoonlight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunshinexxmoonlight) for the lovely moodboards!
> 
> Thank you to my beta, [fettucine_alfreylo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fettuccine_alfreylo/profile).


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I used to hold my freak back  
Now I'm letting go  
I make my own choice  
Bitch, I run this show  
So leave the lights on  
No, you can't make me behave"  
\- Demi Lovato

Ben stared down at the sheet of paper in front of him, with the list of that year’s students. How could he have missed this during registration? Chandrilla Tech always emailed him the enrollees ahead of time so he could send out the syllabus and the reading for the first class. He even had to type each student’s name into a new mailing list. 

But he would have never guessed that Reyna Kenobi was  _ Rey _ , his unbelievably sexy and frankly intimidating new neighbor. Did she know he was the professor when she signed up for his class? 

He realized they had never exchanged last names when they met that awkward day on her lawn. But his picture was on the faculty webpage. Maybe it was paranoia, but he almost felt like he was being fucked with and he didn’t like it one bit.

_ I mean, what the hell is she thinking coming dressed to class like that?  _ He asked himself. 

She looked like an extra in the  _ Hit Me Baby One More Time  _ video. Actually, she looked like the one that would upstage Britney and steal her career, because her innocent face mixed with that sinful body put any other woman Ben had met to shame. 

He screamed internally all over again when he realized she likely wasn’t even  _ born  _ when that video came out. 

What was wrong with him? He did not have a thing for younger girls. He had always been attracted to women his own age. His ex wife had been his high school sweetheart! Meeting Rey had completely made him question his own creep factor and now she was invading his job as well? 

_ Ok, just  _ ** _breathe_ ** ,  _ Solo. Get through the lecture and then you can talk to her. Let her know why she has to drop the class. It’s gonna be alright.  _

“Professor Solo?” Her syrupy voice cut through the buzzing in his head. “Are you alright? You look a bit dicky.”

Laughter from the peanut gallery. 

“E—excuse me?” He could feel his ears burning. 

She shrugged her shoulders cutely. “Oh, right, sorry. You know, under the weather. Unwell?”

“Oh.” He grimaced. “I’m fine.” He looked again at the list in his hands. “When I call your name, please indicate that you are present.”

It was so  _ not _ gonna be alright. 

Using all the tricks his years of public speaking had taught him, he managed to get through the lecture. It still wasn’t easy, because half the questions he posed to the class, Rey took it upon herself to answer. So she was smart as well as sexy.  _ Of course she was. _

When she dropped her pen and squirmed around in her chair, twisting until her skirt rose precariously high as she reached down to grab the fallen utensil, he had almost choked on his sip of water. 

But he had managed to keep it together until the 90 minute class was over, and now he could confront her. 

The students were gathering their things and leaving, while he pretended to be busy with some papers on his desk. He was watching her from the corner of his eye though, and just before she got to the exit he called out, as casually as he could muster.

“Miss Kenobi, can we speak a moment please?”

She turned, her mini skirt clinging to her like a second skin, and gave him a smile that could solve the energy crisis. He noticed then that she had honest to God  _ dimples _ on her peach-tinged cheeks. She was literally the girl-next-door, and he was feeling like an idiot school kid instead of like the professor he was supposed to be. 

Maybe this was not going to be the easy part. 

Standing beside his desk, too close for comfort for Ben’s liking, she leaned down with one palm on the lacquered wood. It had the unfortunate effect of pushing her cleavage together. 

“You wanted to see me, Ben?”

“Uh...yes. I did. Well,” he cleared his throat. “We need to talk about you being a student in this class, Miss Kenobi.” Rey quirked her eyebrows at that, so he hastily added before he lost his nerve entirely, “And I would appreciate if you wouldn’t call me by my first name at school.”

She laughed. He had been using his best “authority figure” voice and she laughed. The audacity of this girl! 

“Miss Kenobi...no first names...so formal!” She leaned closer, as if she was about to tell him a secret. “Well then,  _ Professor _ , what can I do for you?”

Somehow he had taken a bad situation and made it worse. Hearing her call him “professor,” in that sex pot accent of hers was making his collar feel too tight - and not just his collar. _Fuck. Fuckity fuck fuck fuck._

He was supposed to be the expert in human behavior here, and she had just used reverse psychology on  _ him! _

Ben sat up straight in his chair, trying to use his height to overcome the advantage of sitting while she stood. He could still turn this around.

“I know you probably didn’t realize I was going to be the one teaching this class, but given our dual relationship, I think it may be best that you drop the course and pick up another. In fact I insist.” 

“Dual relationship? You mean because you live across the street?” She looked incredulous now, and it dawned on him how ridiculous he probably sounded. 

They had only met once, after all - he hadn’t even known her last name. The truth was they had no relationship, and she couldn’t help where she lived - it wasn’t that large a town. She certainly didn’t know he had fantasized about her, which was where the real conflict lay. But now he was making it obvious there was something more just by bringing it up.

He tried to backpedal. “Uh, well, yes. Since we’re neighbors, it might make others think we have spent time together outside of class and…” he trailed off, losing steam by the second. Oh God, could this day just end?

“Except we haven’t spent time together, have we?” She was grinning like a Cheshire Cat, and something about the smile seemed to say  _ Not yet, anyway.  _

He looked down at his hands, a sign of submission, but it happened reflexively. “Well, not exactly, but it could  _ seem _ that way.” 

“Ben - sorry,  _ Professor Solo _ \- if this is about what happened the day we met, I hope you know that was just a silly accident. I mean if anyone should be embarrassed, it’s me, right?”

Ben tried to search her face for more cheekiness but she was surprisingly hard to read in the moment. Guilt started to seep in for thinking she had bad intentions, even overpowering the humiliation of reliving that day on her lawn.

Rey continued, “But I really need this class, so I can’t just drop it. I’m one credit away from completing my second year, and I want to major in psychology at Hoth University when I transfer.”

That got his attention. “You want to— _ major _ in psychology?”

She put her hands on her hips and pouted like she was offended. His stomach threw a curveball. 

“Well yeah, I didn’t choose this class at random!”

_ “So let me get this straight _ ,” the devil on his shoulder said. “ _ This girl is smokin’ hot, totally accessible to you, obviously down to get freaky, AND she shares your interests in life?? Why are your pants still on?” _

_ “She’s his student you nimrod!”  _ Retorted the angel.  _ “I know you hate your job but are you looking to get blackballed from the profession?” _

_ “More like blue-balled,”  _ huffed the devil. 

Ben blinked stupidly at her, then found his own voice. “Ok...that’s great. So you can take Mrs. Holdo’s Psych 101 class at 2 o’clock then.” 

“No I can’t,  _ Sir _ ,” she emphasized, clearly not letting go of her disdain for his prior request. “I have to be at work at one.” 

He took off his glasses and pinched at the bridge of his nose, starting to feel a volcano forming behind his temples. 

“Ok! Fine, you can stay in the class. But we need to set some ground rules.” 

“You mean other than me calling you Mr. Solo like we’re in primary school?” She sassed.

He narrowed his eyes, having had just about enough of this brat. A sudden thought to turn her over his knee flashed in his mind, and he gritted his teeth to make it go away.

_ Not. Helping. _

“It’s  _ Professor _ Solo, and yes that’s one of them. The others are: we won’t have any contact outside of school, aside from emailing about assignments. You won’t tell any of the other students that we’re next door neighbors. Agreed?”

“Sure, fine. You’re the one acting like we pop off to get legless together every other night, when all we do is drive to the same street!”

Ben sputtered. “Excuse me, to get what?”

She huffed like it annoyed her to explain. “Legless, you know, drunk off your arse?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Are you even old enough to drink?”

“Why, are you asking me to the pub?”

This girl was insufferable! Maybe a semester of putting up with her smartass ways would cure him of this silly crush.

_ Oh God, did I just admit it to myself?? _

He stood to his feet, about to dismiss her, but he noticed her eyes widen when he was at his full height. For once, her mouth was blessedly closed. He felt a brief moment of control return. He decided to press his luck.

“And one more rule: when you come to class, please make sure you are wearing appropriate outfits!”

Then the fire was back in her eyes, and he knew he had blown it. Again.

“Appropriate outfits?” She clasped her hands behind her back, which rolled her shoulders back and thrust out her chest. “I wasn’t aware that this school had a dress code. Don’t you think that’s a bit sexist, even for you prudish Americans? What exactly about my outfit do you find  _ inappropriate _ , anyway?”

The devil on his shoulder was face-palming.

“Ah...well...it’s kinda short, don’t you think?” He stumbled.

“It’s still 30 degrees outside in the afternoons, what do you expect?? That’s about 87 Fareinheit in case you were wondering.” 

The dig got his temper up and he found his nerve. “Got it, THANKS. But if you want to stay in this class, you will start to show me some  _ respect _ , and you will  _ look _ respectable. Are we clear?” 

He wasn’t sure whether the look he got back was a pout or a glare, ( _ How _ _ was she able to do both at once?? _ ) but she simply said, “Crystal,” and turned on her heel to leave.

Ben slumped down into his chair again as soon as she was gone. Was every class going to be this difficult with her around? Moving to Japan to teach English as a second language was starting to look more and more appealing by the day…

Art by [Laura Barcali](https://twitter.com/LBarcali)

* * *

The rest of the day passed as usual, but he kept replaying the conversation with Rey over in his mind. Most students at least pretended to care about his opinion of them, to his face anyway. What was her deal, speaking to him that way? Was it some kind of British thing? 

He was halfway back to his house when his phone rang. The Bluetooth display in his Civic flashed up  _ Dad _ . 

“Shit!” He swore. After the crazy ass day he had, he completely forgot he was supposed to go over to his father’s house for dinner tonight. 

He pushed the  _ Talk _ button and mentally prepared himself.

“Hello?”

Han Solo’s tenor piped out, somewhat distorted by Chewie, his dad’s St. Bernard, barking his head off in the background. “Hey Sport! Just wanted to see if you could stop by Kyber-Mart on your way over and grab some spaghetti sauce? I thought I had a jar but says it expired a month ago...Ah hell, we could risk it if you don’t have time?”

“Dad, can you please take me off speaker? I can’t hear a thing over Chewie yapping behind you!”

The voice got clearer. “Sorry, Sport. Chewie, shut it! Ah, I was saying could you get some spaghetti sauce on your way over? Yeah, I just looked at this one and there’s some really gnarly mold growing so…”

Ben cringed. His mom and dad had been divorced for ten years, and Han still had no idea how to take care of himself without her. 

“Sure thing. I’m running a little late though. I’ll text when I’m out of the store, ok? Don’t overboil the spaghetti like last time.” 

Han snorted. “You love my famous spaghetti and meatballs.”

“Yeah.”  _ When I was seven,  _ he added mentally. “See you later, Dad.”

He disconnected the call and turned the car around with a sigh. Spending time with his parents was always a source of conflict. On the one hand, he found himself in the middle of their petty arguments more often than any kid should be. On the other, if he avoided them he only felt mounting guilt until the next time one of them called and goaded him into visiting. 

It only got worse after his own divorce. He supposed he got it honest, his inability to open up and be vulnerable with someone. His dad was the king of playing your cards close to your vest, and Ben’s ex had none of his mother’s boldness that always brought Han’s secrets to light. Then again, that strategy hadn’t worked out so well for them, either. 

But Barriss had been too meek to call Ben on his shit when he shut her out, and always seemed to be crying the last few years of their relationship. He tried, he really did, but they never were able to break their communication barriers enough to truly understand one another. Though they had dated each other in high school, by the end of the marriage he felt that they had never really known one another at all. Between his parents splitting up and his own marriage imploding, it was enough to make him wary of getting involved again for a long while. 

After a quick trip to Kyber-Mart for the jarred spaghetti sauce, he headed for his dad’s apartment. His mom had gotten the house in the divorce, but closer quarters had always suited Han anyway, having worked most of his life as a long distance truck driver. He spent weeks away from the one bedroom he rented, taking Chewie with him when he hit the open road. He had semi-retired for a while before his split from Leia, going on shorter runs that only took him to neighboring cities, but when the divorce was finalized he went back to cross country trips which was always his preferred schedule. 

Ben parked his car and walked up the two flights of stairs to his dad’s door, giving a light knock that set off another round of barking yelps from Chewie. A minute later Han threw back the door. 

“How ya doin’ son? Come on in,” he greeted Ben. He wasn’t smiling, unless you could count a slight twitch of the face a smile, but his eyes were twinkling so Ben knew he was glad to see him. 

It had taken many, many years for him to comprehend his father and there were still times he struggled, but they had reached somewhat of an understanding in Ben’s middle age. Trying to figure out why his parents did the things they did was half the reason Ben became interested in psychology in the first place. Between arguments that ended in too-public makeup sessions, his dad never being able to stay in one place for more than a few weeks at a time, and his mother needing to be in control of every detail of every plan, there was always some new chaos in his house to decipher. 

Ben walked into the little apartment and immediately wrinkled his nose. “Ugh, it reeks in here!”

Han took the jar of sauce from the grocery bag Ben was holding and popped it open before pouring it into a saucepan on the stove. 

“Oh yeah, I need to empty the trash,” he said with a dismissive hand wave.

Ben pursed his lips and walked over to the garbage, which was full to bursting. He began tugging at the liner and pulled it out. Chewie had stopped barking and was now sniffing at his pant leg. 

“I’ll be back in a minute,” he told Han, and he headed back out for the complex dumpster.

By the time he got back, the water was boiling and Han was breaking handfuls of dried spaghetti into the pot. Ben had a seat at the cluttered breakfast nook table, and started sorting through the avalanche of mail that covered it.

“You don’t have to do that, you know, I’m gonna get to it tomorrow,” Han said, seemingly annoyed at his son’s attempt to straighten up.

“There’s bills in here from last month…”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ve been to California and back twice since then. It’s no big deal, Ben. I swear sometimes you’re so much like your mom.”

Ben winced.  _ Here it comes _ , he thought.

Han continued, “That woman couldn’t relax for two seconds if everything wasn’t perfect. Honestly, sometimes you’ve just got to live a little. Life isn’t always about things going according to some premade plan, ya know.”

_ Don’t I know it, _ Ben thought, but said nothing.  _ Here I am, about to eat spaghetti out of a jar with my dad, after one of the most frustrating days of my life at a job I no longer want, and I’m single at 32. I’d be more surprised at this point if anything  _ _ did _ _ go according to plan. _

But in response he only nodded. 

The silence stretched out until Han asked, “So how’s work? Got a good bunch this year?”

Ben thought of Rey and her sassy mouth, but that only led him to also think of her round little ass wiggling in the mini skirt, and that was headed nowhere good. He cleared his throat. “Oh uh, well, classes just started so, hard to tell.”

“I’m sure you can whip ‘em into shape, kid,” Han replied, now draining the spaghetti over the sink. 

He plopped it into the pot with the bubbling sauce, and even Ben had to admit it smelled good. He just realized he hadn’t eaten anything today, and even boxed noodles had become appetizing.

Ben got up to make his own plate but Han waved him off, so he sat back down. It felt uncomfortable to have the roles reversed. The oven timer dinged and Han pulled out some garlic bread - also previously frozen, of course. He put two slices on Ben’s plate of pasta and set it down before him, looking quite proud.

“Thanks Dad, it looks great.”

“Of course it does, it’s my famous spaghetti and meat—oh shit, I forgot to cook the meatballs!” 

Ben shook his head with a laugh, and bit into the garlic bread. “It’s fine. Let’s just eat.”

* * *

When he finally arrived home that night, and he pulled into the driveway of his darkened house, he couldn’t help but look across the street at the little ranch where Rey was. 

As he wondered - without really understanding why - whether she was asleep or awake, his dad’s words came back to him. 

_ “Sometimes you’ve just got to live a little. Life isn’t always about things going according to some premade plan…” _

_ Maybe you know more than I give you credit for, old man, _ he thought as he cut off the engine and went inside, with only the silence to greet him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for such a great response to this story! I'm just having fun with it so we'll see where it goes :) And a great big thank you to my ever amazing beta and moodboard creator extraordinaire, [Sally](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fettuccine_alfreylo). Love you forever girl!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "You say that I'm kinda difficult  
But it's always someone else's fault  
Got you wrapped around my finger, babe  
You can count on me to misbehave"  
\- Marina and the Diamonds

The next morning as he readied for class, Ben found he had a strange fluttering feeling in his gut. He regarded it as his normal bout of pre-breakfast nausea, but there was something else too. Anticipation?  _ No.  _ He wouldn’t think about that now. For now, he would focus on presenting his poker face to the new students and establishing his authority. That was going to be the key to getting through another school year with his sanity and his reputation intact. 

That idealistic thought lasted all of thirty eight minutes, precisely the time it took to commute from his house to Chandrilla Tech in rush hour traffic and make it into Windu Hall Rm 105. Because the moment he walked through the door, any sense of “establishing authority” popped like the bubble gum Rey Kenobi was currently chewing from her front row seat. 

She was wearing a gray tweed skirted suit, with a scoop neck vest and a silky white button up blouse beneath. The sleeves were cuffed at three quarter length, highlighting her delicate wrists and hands, while the shimmering fabric did little to conceal the fact that she seemed to be wearing a darker colored bra beneath. The pencil skirt stopped just above her knee, more modest than the length of yesterday’s, but her slim legs were clad in black nylons and gray stiletto heels. To top off the look, she wore her hair up in a bun and black cat eye frame glasses. 

She was “professionally dressed” in the same way a stripper roleplaying as a naughty secretary might be, and he had no doubt she had done it on purpose. She had taken his request and followed it to the letter of the law but not the spirit. How was any man supposed to keep his cool with such a vixen around? 

She hadn’t yet spotted him lingering in the doorway, or maybe she had and pretended not to notice, because he heard her chatting animatedly to two other girls seated beside her in the front row of desks. 

“Who’d  _ you _ get all dressed up for? Looks like you got a hot date after class!” A blonde girl whose name Ben hadn’t memorized yet asked her. 

He held his breath, awaiting Rey’s answer. 

She laughed airily. “Just thought I’d make myself a bit more  _ presentable _ today, that’s all.” She definitely knew he was there. With a flick of her hazel eyes over the rim of the glasses, she gave him a look that seemed to say,  _ Checkmate. _

The other girl laughed too, shaking her head. “Yeah right. Spill it, girl. You must at least have a boyfriend, right?”

A boyfriend. It never even occurred to Ben that she might have a boyfriend.  _ But how could a girl like her possibly be single?  _ he thought, fighting the irrational surge of anger that came with this idea. 

“No, no boyfriend,” she smiled coyly. “But there is a bloke I fancy, truth be told.”

Ben’s stomach was like a plane going two wheels off the runway. Did Rey already have her eye on someone? 

“Ooo, tell us! What’s he like?” The one to her left pleaded.

_ Don’t make eye contact, don’t make eye contact, _ he told himself.

He made eye contact. 

She turned and looked straight at him, batting her lashes in true ingenue fashion. “Oh, he’s dishy alright. Tall as a tree, broad shouldered, dark wavy hair you just want to tug on, and I just  _ know _ he’s packing.” She bit her lip. She actually bit her lip. 

His stomach did a loop-de-loop at 10,000 feet.  _ She was talking about him! _

The blonde girl sighed and schmoozed, “He sounds gorgeous...”

But the one to her left’s eyebrows were stitched together. “That sounds an awful lot like...”

“GOOD MORNING CLASS,” Ben bellowed, much louder than he even intended, cutting the girl off before she could make the connection. 

Rey turned to face him at the front, giving him that wicked grin that made his toes curl in his oxfords. What did he do to deserve this?

“Someone’s had too much coffee,” he heard one of them mutter, but he paid no attention. He needed to dive into his lecture, and fast, if he wanted to distract himself from what he just heard.

Maybe she was just fucking with him. Maybe she liked playing head games. He wrestled to find a justification, but his male instincts knew better. Miss Rey Kenobi, with the sweetest face and the hottest body he had ever seen, wanted him. His  _ student _ wanted him, and what was worse, he wanted her too. 

The battle of wills had begun.

* * *

Ben switched on the PowerPoint that contained his lecture. “Your assignment was to read the first three chapters of your textbook. Today we’re going to be covering the early pioneers of psychology. Who can name them?”

He looked out among the crowd, getting only bored looks in response to his question. This was literally the easiest part of the day, to simply give the names of the men who had founded the discipline - any senior in high school should know at least some of them. And yet - crickets. 

A chipper British accent spoke up, putting Ben out of his misery. “Wilhelm Wundt, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and William James, professor.”

He had to be grateful for the assist. “Yes, Miss Kenobi, that’s right. Today we will be focusing primarily on Wundt and Freud. The others, as well as Pavlov and Adler, we will cover in the next few units.”

His gratitude turned to alarm when she gave him a wink at his acknowledgment. How he could continue to be shocked by her boldness, he wasn’t sure, but he had to try twice as hard to simply treat her as any other student, no matter how it made his blood pressure rise. 

_ That won’t be all that’s rising today _ , the devil chirped in his ear, as he averted his eyes from her seat where she was currently crossing and uncrossing her legs. The stockings looked to stop at her upper thigh, and he thought he caught a glimpse of the creamy white skin that lay beyond. 

He blinked stupidly at the podium, willing the next thought to come into his head. Thankfully, she seemed to be satisfactorily repositioned, and the circuits in his brain began firing once more. He continued on. 

The lecture went smoothly from there, and he thought his dick might let him get through the rest of the day without violating the code of ethics, until they reached the segment on Freud. 

As if on cue, no sooner had he clicked onto the slide about  _ Oral Fixation _ than Rey reached into her clutch bag and pulled out a lollipop. He felt his left eye twitch maddeningly.  _ Who the fuck brings a lollipop to a college lecture?! _

He slowed his breathing and focused on explaining Freud’s theory that if an infant’s oral needs were not met during development, it could result in an obsession with oral stimulation as an adult. 

Meanwhile Rey watched from the front row, her eyes burning into him while she unpeeled the candy from its wrapper. It was cherry, because of course it fucking was, and she couldn’t simply tuck it in her mouth like a normal person. No, she was intently taking notes with one hand, and with the other she was twirling the lollipop in a slow circle, her plush lips softly sucking as it glided over them. Now and then he would catch a glimpse of her pink tongue darting out to swipe at the bottom of the sugary treat, snaking a little ways down the white stick holding it in place. 

It was too easy to imagine those wet lips wrapped around another kind of lollipop, one much thicker but just as sticky. Somewhere in Europe, Sigmund Freud was rolling in his grave.

Shifting his weight behind the podium to ease the tightness in his pants, Ben cleared his throat expectantly. The students texting in the back row simply ignored him, but Rey lifted her eyes from her notes, the bulge of the lollipop lodged obscenely in her cheek. 

“Miss Kenobi, I suppose you neglected to read the syllabus but if you had, you would have seen on page 2 that I have a strict no eating in class policy.” He crossed his arms, hoping she wouldn’t challenge him in front of the entire class. They were snickering, but she appeared completely unfazed. 

She pulled the candy from her mouth with a loud slurp, her red stained lips spreading to a grin. “Terribly sorry, Professor. May I be excused to go to the bin?”

He nodded curtly, shocked that it had been that easy. The difficulty presented itself quickly, however, as she slid out of her seat. The constricting A-line skirt hugged her thighs and ass so tightly that she actually  _ wiggled _ as she walked away. He felt the tips of his ears burning and shot his gaze back down to his lecture notes. Why the hell should he be the one embarrassed here??

“As I was saying, Freud’s theories were all predicated on the belief that latent sexual impulses drive our subconscious behaviors. Modern theorists however, have firmly disavowed this idea.”

Modern theorists, it seemed, had never met one Reyna Kenobi. 

He finished the lecture while she was still out of the room. She had been gone for more than five minutes, and he was starting to get suspicious. 

_ Relax, Ben, _ his logic told him, finally deciding to show itself.  _ She probably just went to the bathroom. She’s just a rebellious kid, not a freaking secret agent.  _

He addressed the others, going to sit at his desk. “For the rest of the class, you may begin working silently on your outlines for next week’s paper. Remember, it’s due next Friday at 5:00PM, and I will not be accepting any late hand ins. If you have any questions, you can ask them now or refer to my contact information on the syllabus.”

The door opened; Rey had returned, and took her seat. Ben kept his eyes zeroed into his phone. She wasn’t going to get the upper hand on him again today, by God.

He was scrolling through Facebook when his phone pinged a few moments later. A text message. Probably his mom, since he hadn’t reached out to her in over a week. That always seemed to be her cue to send out the search party. He huffed an exasperated sigh and reluctantly tapped the notification, ready to agree to another awkward dinner “date,” when he was hit like a bolt of lightning. Panic and adrenaline were wrestling for dominance over his body, and it wasn’t clear which was stronger. 

The text wasn’t from his mother. It wasn’t from any number he recognized. But there was only one suspect as to who had sent it. 

It was a picture, albeit blurred through a filter like one of those photo editors everyone over 40 used on their dating profiles. Because of the filter, the details weren’t super clear but what  _ was _ clear was the hem of a gray skirt rucked high above a nylon encased thigh, and an itty bitty triangle of black material disappearing into the shadows below. 

_ Holy fuck, that little nymph! _ He knew he shouldn’t have let Holdo and the other professors talk him into including his cell number on the syllabus. They insisted texting was the best way to “stay in touch” with today’s students. Somehow he didn’t think this was the kind of touching they meant. 

A female voice spoke up behind him, and he jumped so hard he banged his lap on the underside of his desk. Quickly, he slammed the phone face down and hoped he hadn’t cracked the screen.

“I’m sorry, Sir, I didn’t mean to scare you.” 

He turned to see the blonde from the front row standing beside his desk with her textbook in her hand. “Uhh, that’s Ok I was...just really focused. Can I help you...?” Ben scooted his chair in closer, hiding his “problem” from her view. 

“Well I just had a question about structuralism.”

“Structuralism?” He blanked.

“Uh yes, Professor. Wundt’s theory?” She quirked a brow.

“Oh. Right. Yes, Wundt. Sure, what’s your question?”

He strained to focus as the clock showed the end of class, and the students were gathering their things to leave. He tried, God knows he tried, not to dart his eyes to Rey’s desk, but when he did he found it already empty. 

He turned his attention back to the nameless blonde. “Structuralism was a theory dependent on...” 

Barely ten minutes later, he was in the faculty bathroom in the privacy of a stall, cursing his colossal bad luck. His cellphone in one hand and his cock in the other, he wasn’t sure whether he was feeling more guilt or more arousal. He should have deleted the photo immediately. He should be reporting her, or at least confronting her. He wasn’t this person, a pervy professor lusting for his students and jacking off at work. But here he was, just the same, eyes laser focused on the blurry image of a tiny black thong, so wound up that his balls ached to be spent. 

Any second now someone could come into the bathroom and catch him by the sound of his hand slapping as it tugged roughly on his erection. Horny thoughts buzzed through his brain: the way her skirt had hugged her round little ass, her saucy mouth slurping that lollipop. Was she imagining blowing him as he stood at the podium? Did she want to duck behind it and hide herself from the class, his own dirty little secret? He fantasized about fucking her on his desk, punishing her for all the teasing with every student watching as he pounded into her and made her squeal.

That was the image that pushed him over, thick ropes of cum splashing into the toilet and splattering the lid. He lifted his arm to the back wall, slumping against the crook of his elbow and panting from the intensity of his orgasm. He couldn’t remember the last time he had gotten off so quickly.

There was nothing left to do now but clean himself up, splash cold water on his face, and try to avoid looking himself in the eye when he saw his own judging reflection. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to the incomparable [fettucine_alfreylo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fettuccine_alfreylo/pseuds/fettuccine_alfreylo) for the moodboard!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “So I'll just make this  
A little more obvious  
'Cause I get what I want  
And I want you to get with me“  
\- The Faders

In the weeks that followed, there were no more text messages from his would-be seductress. Ben began to think it had been a mistake. Perhaps she was sneaking away to send the photo to someone else, a hookup from the internet or a boy in their class, and had just selected his contact information by accident. It seemed inexplicable, but cognitive dissonance was a powerful thing, and he was more than ready to put the whole business behind him. 

If there was one lesson he had learned from all this, it was how lonely he had truly become since the divorce. His need for companionship - and frankly, for sex - had him acting wildly out of character. Maybe it was time to put himself out there again, test the waters. So he started swiping right on every woman who looked over the age of 27 and whose profile picture didn’t feature a toddler on her hip. He wasn’t looking for complications, just practicalities. 

This valiant effort garnered him a whopping two instances of being ghosted, and one first date that spent the night bemoaning the many shortcomings of her ex-husband. He still invited her in afterwards. She took one look at his sparsely decorated living room with a single beat up recliner and walls absent of any paintings or photos, and came down with a stomach ache on the spot. 

“Next time,” she promised, half walking and half stumbling backwards through the front door. Guess the ladies these days weren’t into “Bachelor Serial Killer” chic.

That was when, in a moment of feeling particularly pathetic, he pulled up Rey’s picture again. He had deleted the actual text message, being much too risky to keep around, and fully intended to let the photo go with it. But at the last second, as his finger hovered over the confirmation, he saved the picture to a password protected album, and there it sat for nearly three weeks. 

Three weeks of grading papers and tamping down flocks of butterflies when her name popped up. Of straining to be impartial to the point of over-correcting her work, only to see her thoughtfully incorporate the criticism into the next assignment. There was no denying it, she was as brilliant as she was beautiful, and she had a real knack for psychology. God knows she had climbed inside _ his _ head easily enough. 

Her outfits continued to be a parade of fantasy wear, and she managed to find new ways to flout the rules of decency. One day it was fishnet stockings with knee high leather boots, smoky mascara and blood red lipstick; a vampire’s wet dream. The next it was pearls and high heels, dresses with lace and the sweetest doe eyes imaginable; a Lolita ripped right from the page. She seemed to have an endless supply of personas in her closet, and every single one of them demanded his attention - making it all the more important that he deny it to her. Both their futures depended on it, he knew. 

But he still had his private moments. He still had his view of her bedroom window from across the street, and sometimes even her silhouette through the gauzy curtains. And of course, he had the photo. It was waiting for the night he would cave to the pressure again, waiting for him to tap out the passcode to get another hit. That night was tonight. 

With another filthy scene playing in his head, he forgot all about his ill-fated Tinder date. Ben groaned into the pillow, biting down when he came. It was terribly, terribly wrong, but it felt so fucking _ good _ . _ Dopamine is a hell of a drug _, he thought drowsily, as he drifted into an all-embracing sleep. 

* * *

That week began their unit on conditioning: classical vs. operant, and a group assignment to demonstrate a real world example of their choice. Some students chose to build a Skinner Box, collaborating with the biology department to train a rat to press a lever for food. Some students videotaped themselves teaching their dogs to do elaborate tricks for treats. Some took a child development focus and wrote about different methods of discipline as it related to managing a Kindergarten classroom. The approach was up to them so long as they could demonstrate a good understanding of the concepts, and it proved to be one of the more popular assignments of Ben’s curriculum. 

Rey had joined the Skinner Box group, and Ben was holding a late afternoon clinic on how to use the data analysis software to get the results of their experiments. He was going from computer station to computer station helping them with their various questions when Rey called out to him, her accent as crisp as freshly laundered sheets. She sounded so proper at times like these; Ben knew she was anything but. 

“Professor, a moment please?” Her hazel eyes were shining. 

Ben steeled himself and headed in her direction. _ Nothing will happen _ , he told himself. _ You’re in a public classroom. _

“Yes, Miss Kenobi? You had a question?” He stood over her, keeping as much distance as he could without arousing suspicion.

Naturally, she had worn a low cut blouse that day, and his eyes darted around as he waited for her answer. She was always one step ahead. 

“Yes, Sir,” she purred. “I can’t seem to get this data to format properly in the table. Can you take a look?”

Ben worked at his jaw and begrudgingly pulled up a chair to sit next to her. His large stature meant he had to practically hunch over the computer in the small plastic classroom seat. They were almost shoulder to shoulder, the closest they had ever been. He reminded himself to slow and deepen his breathing. 

“Tell me what’s happening with the table.”

“Well, it’s not so much with the table as with what’s _ underneath _ it,” she replied. “See, this footnote here just doesn’t want to behave.” She gestured to the screen, and then Ben felt something small and warm and curious stroking up his pant leg from the ankle to the calf. 

His breath hitched and his eyes popped open as he realized what was happening. Rey had curled the leg nearest to him back just far enough to place her stockinged foot against his under the table. The angle meant she couldn’t go any higher than his calf - THANK GOD - but that didn’t make it any less erotic. Or any less wildly inappropriate. 

He looked around in a panic, hoping desperately none of the other students were paying attention. Fortunately, they all either had their eyes on their cell phones, or were chatting with their group mates about things absolutely unrelated to the assignment. For once, their indifference didn’t piss him off.

Her toes were wriggling into his pant leg and he could feel the slick silk of her stockings on his bare skin. It tickled, and the naughtiness of it made his traitor cock twitch. Ben turned to her, storm clouds in his expression. “Stop it,” he hissed, keeping the volume low but trying to convey the seriousness in his tone.

“Stop what?” She teased, daring him, knowing he was between a rock and a literal hard place. 

“Did you actually have a question, or did you just call me over here to harass me?” He asked bluntly.

“You wound me, Professor. Of course I have a question.” 

With that she reached over, placing her small hand on top of his, guiding the mouse. Her skin was warm and smooth, and sent jolts of electricity racing through his arm. This was not the most thrilling, and infuriating, part. Her half-crouch out of her seat to reach the mouse meant she had to lean over him, torso across the table. Her chest was thrust mere inches from his face, cleavage on display in the low cut shirt. She smelled like strawberries. All it would take would be for him to dip his head down, and he would finally know the pillowy softness of her breasts. They were small, but looked incredibly perky. Pushed together this way, he could wrap both into one hand and...

Ben could hear the blood pounding in his ears, and he felt rooted to the chair, unable to move a muscle. 

“I need to get this data here to line up with the cells, but I can’t figure out why I can’t insert it. I think it might be too long,” she said, innuendo dripping from her voice. At least she had mercy enough to sit back at a reasonable distance again and let him draw a breath of air.

Ben said nothing; he merely moved the mouse, right clicked the data, and selected “auto fit to field.” She was more than capable of figuring this out on her own, he knew. 

“Thank you _so_ much, Ben. I knew you could get it to fit.” That insufferable smirk was back. He felt a raging desire to viciously kiss it away, biting at those ruby lips until she was at _ his _ mercy. He felt this whenever she was near, like he had become nothing but a pulsating force of pure id.

The psychologist in him couldn’t help but spin through the pages of his mental DSM. There had to be a name for this, and he didn’t think she-devil was a medical term. Was she a nymphomaniac? Histrionic Personality Disorder? Sadomasochist? Maybe all of the above.

“I hope that answered your question,” he growled, feeling as though he had just stepped off a roller coaster - torn between wanting to ride it again, or to hurl.

“Oh, that wasn’t my question.”

Ben blinked incredulously.

“My question was,” she leaned in again, close enough to whisper. “Do you still have my picture?”

He bolted from the table. She _ had _ meant to send it to him. And she knew just what it would do to him, knew he wouldn’t be able to delete it. He was fighting every time he saw her to be strong, to do the right thing, but he was still so weak, and she could sense it. Could _ smell _ it like a shark smells blood. This girl was ruthless, and she wasn’t going to stop until she had his pants down, revenge fucking her into the next galaxy. A sinking feeling told him it was just a matter of time.

There were ten minutes left in the class period but he had to put some distance between himself and Rey, before he either said or did something he would regret. Whether that was going to be in rage or in lust, he wasn’t sure.

“Class dismissed,” he barked. The other students looked confused at his suddenly harsh tone. “I’m...letting you out early for your good work today. See you next week.” And with that, he grabbed his keys and cell phone from his desk and made a beeline for the door.

On his way out, he brushed past Amilyn Holdo. “Oh, Ben, I’m glad I caught you—” she began, probably wanting to discuss some bullshit luncheon or other banality that made up his existence when he wasn’t being tortured by a twenty-two year old man-eater. 

He held up his hand to her, not bothering to slow his pace as he jogged by. “Sorry Amilyn, have to take care of something. Email me, ok?”

He left her huffing in indignation, weaving his way through the mob of other students and faculty filtering through the halls.

He didn’t stop until he was in the employee parking lot. Jamming numbers into his phone, he listened to it ring once, twice, three times.

“Come on, come on, come on...”

Finally, an answer.

“Poe? It’s Ben. I need a fucking drink.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to my beta Sally, and thank you dear readers for welcoming me back to the world of fic!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I must admit  
I can't explain  
Any of these thoughts  
Racing through my brain  
It's true  
Baby I'm howlin' for you  
-Black Keys

A few hours later, Ben was two scotches deep and nursing the third as he listened to Poe Dameron jabber on about the promotion he was gunning for at the accounting firm where he worked. Poe’s mother had been a close friend of Ben’s mother when Ben was growing up, so the two boys spent a lot of summers together and even attended the same college. Poe had been wildly popular, joining a fraternity and cycling through a bevy of girlfriends in their four years at Hoth U, gaining him the nickname “Big Dick Dameron.” Meanwhile, Ben spent most of his time in the library and on the track, and chatting online with Barriss who was attending State. 

  


Despite their differences, Poe would call Ben at least once a month after graduation and invite him out. Ben almost always said no, occasionally compromising on Poe coming to his place for a Call of Duty marathon. But after the two months of agony Ben had endured, getting shit faced in public with an old friend didn’t sound half bad. 

  


“...So next time I’m just going to tell her she can stick her fucking audits where the sun doesn’t shine,” Poe declared, draining his rum and coke with a flourish.

  


“Uh huh,” Ben offered, not truly listening. He wanted to sit here and drink until he came up with a solution to his “ethical dilemma,” or at least until he didn’t care that he had it anymore. So far the whiskey was doing a piss poor job, because he felt neither drunk nor oblivious: just the usual mix of sexual frustration and cynical outlook. 

  


“Anyway, what gives, Solo? I haven’t been able to drag you out to Troopers since the night Barriss left. Is this the new and improved Benjamin I’m talking to?” Poe ribbed at him. 

  


“Just felt like catching up. Is that so hard to believe?”

  


Poe was not convinced. “Well frankly, yes. You’re a whole lot better at getting into people’s heads than letting them get into yours, bud.” 

  


Ben snorted. “You’d be surprised.”

  


He took another sip of scotch, swirling the ice in the lowball. Poe was right, and he knew it. Ben had never been good at “opening up” or “letting loose.” That was exactly what ended his marriage. But right now he had a problem, a serious one, and no one to talk to about it. Maybe he should get some advice, leaving out certain details that is. After all, Poe was always better with women than he was. 

  


He cleared his throat. “Well there’s this girl...” 

  


“A GIRL? WHAT GIRL?” Poe echoed, his voice elevated above the din of the neighborhood bar. 

  


Ben felt a stab of embarrassment when the waitress looked their way. “Yes, Jesus Christ, don’t act so shocked.”

  


“I’m just happy for you, Ben! You deserve it, man, you really do. Been some hard breaks in the last two years, you know?”

  


“It’s not like that,” Ben muttered. He was already regretting this urge to come clean. 

  


“Well it’s never simple with women, is it?” Poe laughed. “If you need advice on how to get her to notice you, I have to say you came to the right man.” He flashed his Hollywood grin.

  


“Oh she’s noticed me alright. Too damn much, actually.”

  


“What does that mean? Isn’t that a good thing?”

  


“It might be, under...other circumstances. But it’s complicated. She’s sort of off limits.”

  


“Off limits how? The only limits are your imagination, I always say,” he smirked. “Is she married? Or...God, don’t tell me. She’s 18, right??”

  


“Yes, she’s over 18!” Ben snapped. “I’m not a pervert.” His shoulder angel was crossing its arms and glaring at him knowingly.

  


“Well look, I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what the issue is.”

  


“I kind of met her at work.”

  


“Oh, so she’s a coworker. Yeah, I can see how that would be a boner killer. Don’t shit where you eat and all that. But still, haven’t you been saying you’re going to leave this job for the past three years?? Maybe it’s a sign.”

  


“She’s not a coworker,” he mumbled into his glass, tipping the last of the drink to his lips. 

  


Poe scrunched his eyebrows together. “But if you met her at work and she’s not a coworker that would make her a...” His expression was a mixture of disbelief and envy.

  


“Yeah.”

  


“Damn.” Dameron sat back in his chair and ran a hand through his stylishly messy waves. “Is she one of yours?”

  


Ben was silent, but that served as Poe’s answer.

  


“So how old is she, then?”

  


“Around twenty-two...I think.” His face felt hot, and probably not from the alcohol.

  


“That’s legal at least. It’s a start.”

  


“Poe, I don’t know what’s motivating this girl, but she has some kind of obsession with me.”

  


He grinned, wolfish. “Is she hot?”

  


Was Rey Kenobi hot? Was water wet? “Extremely. Insanely. Off the goddamn charts.”

  


“Sounds like the obsession is mutual.”

  


Ben groaned. He wanted another round, but knew he should stop if he had any hope of driving himself home tonight. He flagged down their waitress and asked for a water. 

  


The three drinks he’d already had began to work to loosen his lips. “In any other universe, I’d feel like I won the lottery that this girl was interested in me. I mean, she’s a human tornado. I don’t know if it would be a long time but it would certainly be a  _ good _ time, if you see where I’m going. But I could get fired for even thinking about her the way I have been. I could lose my teaching license. And she doesn’t seem to want to take no for an answer. I don’t think she’s ever even  _ heard _ the word no. What the hell am I going to do?”

  


“That’s a tough one, man, I’m not going to lie. I mean, how obvious has she made it? You could let the school know, maybe they’d expel her?”

  


“Right. Like they’re going to believe me over her. I can just see the social media shitshow now. And anyway...I don’t...I mean, I couldn’t...”

  


“You kind of like the attention.”

  


Ben shot him daggers. 

  


“Hey, it’s OK to admit it. At our age, a hot young thing comes knocking, it fluffs up the ego, you know?”

  


He hated to admit Poe had a point. Was that the reason he felt he was in such a bind? It was true that despite being extremely maddening, his encounters with Rey had also left him feeling...alive? Attuned in a way he hadn’t been in a long, long time. It was all very manic pixie dream girl, he knew, but at least there was something to look  _ forward _ to in the mornings. 

  


Maybe he really was drunk. 

  


“It’s not just that. I don’t know why she’s been so intense about this but she’s also incredibly smart. She’s going to transfer at the end of this semester and wants to major in psychology at Hoth. She’s really got a future ahead of her.”

  


“So what then, she’s trying to sleep her way to the top?”

  


“NO, asshole! We met before she was in my class. Jesus, have some respect.” His temper flared. He might not know much about Rey personally, but he didn’t think this was about getting grades. She had already proven she needed no help in that department. Why did Poe’s insinuation get under his skin so badly? 

  


“Ok, Ok. Just trying to look at all possibilities here. I’m not sure you can really be that objective right now. Wait - how did you meet her before school started?”

  


Ben began to realize just how unbelievable, and unbelievably fucked up, this whole story sounded. He felt a headache coming on and just wished he was home in his bed. 

  


“She, uh...she kind of moved into the old Calrissian place this summer.”

  


“She’s your fucking  _ neighbor _ ??” Poe was now laughing so hard he nearly choked. 

  


“Laugh it up, dick head. This is my actual life we’re talking about.”

  


The other man was wiping small tears from his eyes. “Ahh...I’m sorry, it’s just...you really can’t make this shit up, you know?”

  


“I  _ wish _ it was made up.”

  


“Well, Solo, the way I see it you’ve got two choices. One, you can fuck her brains out and just get it out of your system. Or two, you can wait out the semester and  _ then _ fuck her brains out, guilt free. Personally, I’d do both.”

  


Ben shook his head. “Why did I ask you for advice, again?”

  


Poe grinned. “Cause I’m a genius.”

  


“Whatever. I gotta take a leak.” Ben gulped down the rest of his water and slid off his barstool, heading through the dim lights to the men’s room in the back.

  


When he emerged a few minutes later, there was a small commotion happening at the bar. 

  


“Come on sweetheart, just one dance?” A nasally male voice wheedled. 

  


“Call me sweetheart again, and you’ll be choking on more than just shitty American beer!”

  


Ben froze. He didn’t turn his head. He didn’t need to. He knew that voice, that accent. 

  


There really was no God.

  


The voices grew louder, angrier. “You don’t have to be a bitch about it, you skank. When you’re dressed like a whore, don’t be surprised when people treat you like one.”

  


He looked over to see Rey, wearing a white jean mini skirt and a black crop top, squaring off against a balding and burly construction worker judging by the look of his own outfit.  _ Shit! _ He knew she wasn’t about to back down from a fight, even one with someone who had 100lbs on her and the stench of insulted masculinity. 

  


What was she  _ doing _ at Troopers? This was a tiny neighborhood dive, not a top 40s club in the city. A paranoid thought struck him: had she followed him here??

  


Whatever the reason, something bad was about to go down, and he couldn’t let that happen.

  


Rey was shouting a torrent of expletives at the man, who was growing red in the face, when Ben stepped in between them.

  


“Is there a problem here, buddy?” He said, looking down the three inches of height he had on this jerk. 

  


The other man balked. Ben wasn’t exactly dressed like a brawler in khakis and a dark blue button up, but his fists were clenched and his body language telegraphed his intent to protect Rey at any cost. 

  


His tune changed pretty quick once he got a good look at Ben. “No, man. Sorry, I didn’t know she was with you.”

  


“Doesn’t matter if she is or not, get some manners and learn when to fucking back off,” Ben snarled.

  


He expected a challenge, but none came. The guy just muttered something under his breath and went back to his Bud Lite. 

  


Ben turned to Rey, placing his hands firmly on her shoulders and guiding her back to the table where Poe sat, jaw agape and bug eyed like one of those old Loony Tunes cartoon characters. 

  


He mouthed ‘Is that her?’ to Ben, and Ben grunted in response. For once, Poe was speechless.

  


“I didn’t need your help handling that wanker, you know,” Rey huffed, swaying a little on her feet.

  


“Rey, what are you doing here? You’re so drunk you can’t see straight.”

  


“Well it  _ is _ a bar,” she shot back. Clearly alcohol had not dulled her shine.

  


“You came here alone? Where are your roommates?”

  


“Are you keeping tabs on me, Professor?” She grinned sloppily.

  


“This is serious, damn it! He could have hurt you.”

  


Rey rolled her eyes. “Men, they’re all the same. Shut them down or try to think for yourself and the caveman comes lumbering out!” She hiccuped. 

  


Ben sighed and looked to Poe, who just shrugged.  _ Thanks for the help, ‘Big Dick’ Dameron _ , he thought.

  


“I’m taking you home where you belong.” Ben crossed his arms, his voice deepening to brook no argument from her. 

  


She smiled coyly. “Took you long enough.”

  


“Damn it, Rey, not like that! I’m taking you home to YOUR house. Let’s go.”

  


“Anything you say, Daddy.”

  


She was being sarcastic as usual, but still hearing her call him Daddy jolted straight to his center. Why was he such a  _ wreck _ for her?

  


Poe found his voice at last. He pulled Ben to the side, his back to Rey. “Uh, Ben...are you sure this is a good idea? First, are you even good to drive and second, should you be seen leaving a bar with your student in tow?”

  


“Weren’t you the one telling me to  _ fuck her brains out _ earlier?” Ben countered, with as much annoyance as a whisper could convey.

  


“Is that what you’re planning on doing? Cause I didn’t mean in broad daylight, I meant on the down low!”

  


“No, Poe. It’s not what I plan on doing. She’s my student, and she’s drunk. Really fucking drunk. I’m fine, I had enough water and after what happened up there I feel pretty sobered up. She needs to get home before she gets into any more trouble.”

  


“Just be careful, Ben. I don’t know if you can keep her from getting into trouble, because she  _ is _ trouble.” 

  


Ben looked over Poe’s shoulder at Rey, who was picking the breading off their leftover mozzarella stick order and eating just the cheese. It was surprisingly endearing.

  


“I’ll be careful. Thanks for the drinks.” He put forty dollars down on the table and grabbed Rey’s hand, stopping just to order another water to-go from the bar on the way out. 

  


He didn’t need Poe to tell him that she was trouble, but maybe  _ some _ trouble was worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come say hello on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/reylohalo)!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's getting late  
To give you up  
I took a sip  
From my devil's cup  
Slowly, it's taking over me  
I'm addicted to you  
Don't you know that you're toxic?  
And I love what you do  
Don't you know that you're toxic?  
\- Brittany Spears

Ben led Rey by the hand through the parking lot and opened the door to his black Accord for her. 

“Get in,” he ordered.

“My, my, so forceful all of a sudden. I like it.” She grinned, but she did as he asked and even buckled her seatbelt. 

Ben closed the car door and ran his hand through his hair, letting it rest on the back of his neck. He blew out a breath. God, he hoped this wasn’t a mistake. 

He walked slowly to the driver’s side, taking a moment to think about his game plan. He could have just called her an Uber. Why did he feel it was his responsibility to make sure she got home safely? After the scene in the bar, he was beginning to suspect that despite her bluster, what Rey really needed was someone to look after her. Someone to set limits. 

But that wasn’t his job, was it?

When he got in, he turned on the car and let the AC begin to build. Rey was reclined back in the passenger side, her head tipped back and her eyes closed. He knew she couldn’t have been in the bar the whole time, no way would he have missed her. With her body prone like this, the crop top was riding up and her toned stomach was on full display. She had a pierced navel with a little purple rhinestone nestled into her belly button. This girl had never “blended in” anywhere in her life. 

So where did she come from, and how did she get so drunk so quickly? He knew he should just drive off, get to the neighborhood as fast as it was safe to go, but his curiosity was itching to be scratched. It seemed he could never do what he “should” where she was concerned. 

He put his hand on her bare shoulder, shaking her lightly. 

“Rey...Rey wake up. You need to drink this,” he held out the to-go cup of water to her. 

She shook her head, eyes still closed, grunting to indicate no.

“Come on, Rey, you really need some water,” He pushed the straw up to her mouth. “For me, please?”

After a moment of holding the straw there, letting her know he wasn’t going to give up, she finally pursed her lips around the plastic and began to drink.

“Good girl,” he praised her, squeezing her arm encouragingly.

Her body must have recognized that she was dehydrated better than her mind, because she kept sucking on the straw until half the water was gone. 

“Easy, easy, not so fast, you’ll make yourself sick,” he pulled back and put it in the cup holder beside her. 

Her eyes fluttered open. For a brief moment, she looked so vulnerable and innocent that it stole his breath. This close to her, he could see the sandy freckles scattered across her cheeks.

“Hey,” he said softly.

“Hey,” she croaked back with a lopsided smile. 

She sat up straight in her seat. 

“Can I ask you a question?” Ben said.

“Yeah.”

“Why were you in Troopers tonight?”

“I dunno, it looked fun I guess.” She shrugged.

He wasn’t satisfied. “Is that what twenty somethings find fun these days, dingy holes in the wall?”

She paused, speaking slowly like she was trying to remember. “I was out with Rose and Kaydel. They were ready to head back home but I saw it, and I wanted to go in. To go slumming, you know? I used to do it all the time with my mates back in Lambeth. So I told them just drop me off if they weren’t game.”

Ben shook his head. They should _not_ have let her go off by herself in this condition. What would have happened if he hadn’t been there?

“Well, I’m going to get you home and you’re going to rest.”

“I don’t want to rest.” Rey was leaning over now, her elbow on the console, her hand reaching out to touch his chest. His heart sped to a gallop when she fingered at the buttons on his shirt. 

Ben grabbed for her wrist, holding her hand in place with a tighter grip than he intended. “No.” He looked her in the eyes, his jaw set resolutely. “You don’t need a lover right now, Rey. You need a teacher.”

She pouted, flexing her wrist to get the blood flowing again when he let go. “You really are a wet dish rag, you know that?”

His blood started to heat. Here he was, trying to be a good person and look after her, and what was he getting for it? More frustration and insults. He had absolutely _had_ it. 

“And you are a brat, with a capital B! You act like you were raised by wolves!”

She huffed and stared out her window. “Maybe I was,” she muttered. 

They both sat back in their seats, both indignant. Ben took some deep breaths, calming himself. He had to be the adult in this situation, because clearly she was not.

He decided to change tactics. Plucking up his courage, he wanted to ask her something he had been asking himself ever since the first day of class. “Why me, Rey? You could have anyone, so why me?”

She wasn’t ready to show him her vulnerability again. “What can I say? I like a challenge.”

“Is that all this is to you, a game? Because this could have very real consequences, for both of us. You have so much ahead of you, so much time to figure out what you really want from life. Why fuck that up for a fling?”

She crossed her arms. “I don’t know, call it the Death Drive.”

He snorted indignantly. “Here’s a fact for you, sweetheart: Freud died of a morphine overdose.” With that, he threw the car into reverse and headed for the highway.

Rey was quiet on the way over. Ben kept glancing at her, checking to make sure she was OK. She was drifting in and out of lucidity, eyes sometimes open and other times closed. He wondered how often she got drunk. He supposed it was a pretty normal Friday night activity for someone her age, which reminded him again that there was a vast gulf between them. 

But taking care of her had felt...satisfying. She had so much growing up to do, in spite of her confidence. There was something else he had missed about her before. She threw him off his game, with her constant antics and bold come ons. But in this raw and honest state, he felt his powers of insight return. 

He saw clearly now that she was trying to fill some kind of emptiness, and emptiness was a feeling he could relate to. They were alike in more ways than he realized. 

_ Damn it all to hell _ , he thought bitterly, _ All I wanted was a night out to forget about her. _ His dad’s words came back to him once again. “ _ Life isn’t about some pre-made plan…” _

Ben turned into the Falcon’s Run neighborhood and onto their street. He pulled into Rey’s driveway, glad to see the lights were on. He didn’t want to have to fish through her purse to find her house keys. The last time he rummaged through her belongings did not go well.

He shook her again, a little firmer this time. “Rey, we’re here. Time to go inside.”

She hummed in response but lolled her head over, fumbling blindly for his car door handle. 

“Wait just a second, I’ll help you out.”

He got out and opened her side of the car, leaning in to unbuckle her seat belt. His hand accidentally brushed against her chest as he did, causing Rey to give a little coo. He tensed up, trying to ignore the tingles zig zagging down his spine. With one hand he grabbed the rest of the water, and the other he looped around her waist, pulling her gently from the seat. 

She leaned against him, braced on his chest as he walked her up the drive. She felt so small and warm, so fragile. He knew he wouldn’t forget the sensation of having her body pressed close to his any time soon. 

They reached her doorstep and he was just about to knock when she said his name.

“Ben.” It was quiet and dreamy, like she was labeling what she was seeing more than asking for his attention. 

He looked down to see her hand reaching again, this time higher. He should have stopped her a second time, but her expression was so gentle and his willpower was spent. 

She let her fingers rest at the side of his head, slipping his raven waves between them. “You want to know ‘why you’?”

He didn’t dare to breathe. 

“It’s cause you’re perfect,” she drawled, her accent deepened by intoxication.

He thought she was about to kiss him. He hoped with everything in him that she wasn’t, because if she did it would be game over. He had his morals and his ethics, but he was only a man, and she was a force of nature. 

She did tilt her head slightly forward, but then without warning he saw her face scrunch up and her neck jerk away, and the next thing he knew she was retching onto the porch.

“Rey!” He acted quickly, yanking the plastic top off the styrofoam cup, and tried to catch as much of her expulsion as he could, but some of the orange fluid still splattered his shoes. 

“Oh God, oh God,” she moaned miserably, in between heaves. 

He sat the cup down, trying not to look at it, and gathered her hair up. With his other hand he stroked at her back, guiding her to the bushes at the side of the porch to finish. 

At last she turned to him, tomato red in the face, and she began to cry.

This had turned into a total, utter disaster beyond anything he could have imagined. And just because his life was becoming a bad sit-com, that was the moment the front door opened. Rey’s roommate, the petite Asian girl with the bob, was standing with her hands on her hips looking shocked at first, then royally pissed.

“Rey?? What’s wrong?!” She glared at Ben and rushed forward, scooping her friend up in her arms. “What did he do to you?”

“Nothing!” Ben protested. “I drove her home and she puked ‘cause she had entirely too much to drink.”

Rey was mewling softly with her head on the girl’s shoulder. “Rose...” she mumbled. “I chundered all over his shoes.”

“It’s ok, Rey, you’re safe now. He can get another pair of shoes.”

Ben wasn’t backing down. “And anyway, why are you blaming me?? Aren’t you the one that left her at a bar all alone? Isn’t that some kind of girl code violation?”

“What the hell would a fuck boy know about girl code?” Rose fired back. “I swear to God, if you put something in her drink...”

His guts were boiling. How could she even think that? This was clearly projection for ditching her friend. “Oh, and then just drove her back to her house? Yeah, that’s exactly what a rapist would do. Answer the question, why did you leave her there?”

“We TRIED to get her to come home, but sometimes it’s like her head is made of rock!”

He certainly couldn’t argue with that.

“Rose, I need to pee really bad!” Rey whined. 

“Ok, honey, just hang on. Kaydel!” Rose called over her shoulder. 

Rey’s other roommate appeared, her blonde hair in two round buns on either side of her head and wearing pink pajamas. She gasped when she saw Rey and the mess on their porch. 

“Can you help her inside, please?” Rose asked, and Kaydel guided Rey in. Ben was turning to leave when Rose stepped out around the puddle and shut the door.

“Wait a second. I thought I recognized you. You live across the street, right?”

He cringed. So much for the “down-low.” 

“Yeah, that’s me.”

“Rey said you teach her psychology class?”

“Yep.”

Rose crossed her arms, weighing her next words. “Well, thanks for getting her home safely. Sorry I freaked on you. Rey told us you’re a really good guy. She doesn’t always make the best decisions but she’s actually a great judge of character.”

Ben nodded, unsure of what to say, so he just mumbled, “Thanks,” and got back in his car. For once he was grateful he lived so close. He stank of scotch and vomit, and he had a _ lot _ on his mind. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry to everyone who thought they'd be hooking up in this chapter XD Ben's a very good boy, don't you know?


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "My gears they grind  
More each day  
And I feel like  
They're gonna grind away  
I just don't know what to do  
I'm too afraid to love you"  
\- The Black Keys

That Monday, Rey was not in class. It was the first one she had missed all semester, and Ben couldn’t help but feel anxious when he looked at the empty seat she normally occupied. Surely at her age, it hadn’t taken her this long to recover from her hangover. Maybe she just needed a mental health day? 

Even he couldn’t deny it, he was worried. 

To top it off, class without her became the usual routine of lectures where he answered all his own questions, pouring his heart into a subject no one else clearly gave a shit about. This is what every day was like before he met her, he realized. Like trying to set fire to a bundle of wet twigs. 

Thirty minutes crawled by, then sixty and finally he was in the home stretch. At last he reached the end of his material. He threw out a reminder about the upcoming midterm as they rushed out the door, and then he was left with the silence. He only had one period today, and debated on opening office hours but he knew no one would show up so what was the point? Might as well go home and catch up on _Ozark_. 

Ben was packing up his things when he heard the door open.

It was Rey, and she was dressed more modestly than he had ever seen her, in a pair of dark wash skinny jeans and a simple red blouse. It was jarring, actually; he had gotten very used to peeks of cleavage or a flash of thigh. Seeing her like this was somehow more intimate than any of her ensembles designed to entice. 

“You’re late,” he said simply, continuing to put books into his messenger bag. 

“I know. Can we talk?” Her voice was quiet.

He looked to her and quirked an eyebrow.

“Just talk. Promise,” she held up her palms to him in surrender.

He leaned back against the desk but kept his arms and legs crossed. “Sure, I’ve got a minute.”

“Ben...can I call you Ben?”

He nodded. She really was on her best behavior today. It felt weird and off key.

“Ben, I just wanted to say thank you for taking me home on Friday. Not many guys would have done that, not in the shape I was in.”

“You’re welcome. I was...concerned.”

“It was stupid. _I’ve_ been acting stupid.”

“You’re anything but stupid, Rey. Impulsive, headstrong, sure. But never stupid.”

“How can you think that after… Look, you’ve been nothing but nice to me since the day you came over to help with the moving, and I’ve just given you trouble. It’s not easy for me to be here and say this so don’t argue.”

She was acting so seriously that it almost concerned him. Gone were the playful flirtations and tongue-in-cheek innuendos. This was a side to her he hadn’t seen, humble and honest. And all it took to get here was a ruined pair of Doc Martens. 

She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “I guess I thought...when we met, in the yard, I mean I knew you were shy but I really felt an attraction. I didn’t know you’d end up teaching here.”

He felt his cheeks grow hot, recalling that mortifying - and arousing - first conversation. After everything she’d done, she still had the power to make him blush.

“Even that first day after class...it felt more like flirting than arguing. What I mean is, I thought you liked it, the chase. I know it’s taboo but I was only going to be your student for fifteen weeks. It just...didn’t seem like a big deal. I wanted you, I thought you wanted me, what’s the issue?”

His sense of flattery turned quickly to indignation. “The issue is my career and my reputation could be seriously damaged! How can you not see that?”

“I do! I do see that. Well, I guess I see it now. And I also see that you weren’t playing hard to get when you kept turning me down. If you really wanted me for sex, you had the perfect opportunity and didn’t take it.”

Did she truly think so lowly of him? “You were _drunk_, Rey. Not tipsy or buzzed, really fucking drunk. Even if you weren’t my student, I’m not that kind of guy.”

She looked down and to the left, a sign she was remembering something painful. “Yeah. It’s just...not what I’m used to.” His anger softened. Someone, maybe a few someones, had hurt her in the past and it honestly hurt _him_ to think of.

The quiet grew between them. He still wasn’t entirely sure what she was doing here or trying to say.

“Well, again, you’re welcome,” he finally said. “I wish you’d try and be more careful, think things through before you act.”

“I _am_ trying. That’s why I came. I want you to know I’ll behave from now on. For real this time. I’ll just show up, do my work, and go home. And hopefully I’ll score highly enough to get into Hoth U, and then we can go back to being just neighbors. Strangers, even...if you want.”

His heart squeezed inside his chest. _Was_ that what he wanted? 

It was complicated, like everything involving Rey Kenobi. She didn’t know about the many nights he had worked himself into a frenzy thinking about putting her sassy mouth to other uses, or how it would feel to finally sink himself home into her wet pussy. 

And she didn’t know about the black and white movie his life had become since he settled for middle age mediocrity, or how meeting her had splashed his world with some much needed color. 

She was giving up because she thought she had done wrong by him, to push him toward something he didn’t want, and couldn’t stand the guilt after he had treated her with respect. 

But it was for the best that she didn’t know those things. It was the only way this truce could last, because if she did realize the crushing weight of his temptation, her inner vixen wouldn’t be able to help herself, and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could run from it.

So he didn’t answer. He just nodded his head and looked into her hazel eyes clouded by shame, and told himself it was the way it had to be. 

“Ok then. I’ll be off. See you Thursday,” she said at last, turning to go.

Ben waited until she left the room, and then he let his shoulders sag. He was out of the woods in terms of losing his job and his good name. So why did he still feel so lost? 

* * *

Rey kept her word. Every Monday, Thursday, and Friday, she showed up exactly at 9:00 a.m. and took her seat. She no longer sat in the front, but Ben found this didn’t prevent his eyes from falling on her constantly during lectures. Sometimes she’d see him looking and offer him a smile - a friendly one, not the come-hither bedroom eyes she did so well. 

She kept her hair simple: three buns pulled to the back that bounced slightly as she walked. Her clothes were fashionable, but not head-turning, and he began to realize it was never the clothes at all which had that effect. She could be wrapped in cozy autumn layers, or she could be draped in the finest silk lingerie; her sparkle stayed the same. 

It was rare for her to raise her hand now, or make a point in class. Her work remained exceptional, but it seemed she was doing everything in her power not to stand out. 

He wished it had worked. 

Midterms were over, and she wasn’t around the neighborhood for fall break. He watched her pile camping equipment into her roommate’s beat up Jeep, and then he watched them drive away. Ben wasn’t much for the outdoors, but he still wondered what it would be like to sit next to her by a campfire, laughing as she stuffed s’mores into her mouth and licked the chocolate off her fingers. 

His vacation was spent in much the same way as he passed his weekends: a cycle of books, trips to the gym, and the occasional Netflix binge. He saw his mom, got a text from Poe, and caught up on sleep. Normal. Predictable. Monotonous. 

Empty.

As the last day of the break approached, he was growing increasingly restless. This he explained by not being ready to give up his freedom from work. He ran additional laps around their cul-de-sac, which he told himself was to purge his excess energy. What he didn’t acknowledge was how often he looked down the street, waiting to spot a red Jeep with peeling paint. 

Ben was cutting the grass when it finally came around the corner, music blaring with the top down. He let the lawn mower idle and took his time pulling up his white tank to wipe the sweat from his eyes. 

Rey and her roommates climbed out and started to unload, but there was someone else he didn’t recognize. _A guy._ He was average height, but he had a blinding smile and a laugh that carried down the block, and he quickly stepped in to help Rey with the bundled up tent. She didn’t give it over right away, but tried to wrestle it back playfully as though to prove she was strong enough. He won, hoisting the tent onto one shoulder and flexing the other in victory. She giggled at him and Ben’s heart fell. 

Had she met him on the camping trip? He hadn’t left with them, that much he was sure of. Did she tease this guy the way she had teased him? He wouldn’t have turned her down like Ben did, because only a crazy person would do that. Mystery man didn’t look crazy. He looked smooth, and confident, and young. All the things Rey was, and Ben wasn’t. 

He couldn’t stand there all day melting under the sun and the heat of his own jealousy. He forced himself to push on with the yard work, glancing over now and then as they continued bringing things inside. Some part of him hoped she would come by to say hello, or wave, or even just look his way. Of course she never did. 

That night as he lay in bed, he replayed the scene in the driveway on a torturous loop. How she smiled at the other guy, how she touched his chest when they wrestled with the tent. 

_Don’t be pathetic, _he thought. _You wanted her to leave you alone and that’s what she’s doing. Someone like her isn’t going to waste time moving on. She’s clocking a hundred miles an hour and you’re standing still._

He had to start making some difficult choices, or accept that his life was going to be forever trapped in limbo like Schrödinger’s cat: neither completely alive nor dead. 

* * *

Classes resumed, and things fell back into their humdrum rhythm. One day, Ben was leaving campus when he drove past the student parking lot and spotted Rey. The forecast predicted rain, and it was currently coming down in cold gray sheets. She was standing in the downpour with only the open hood of her car as a cover, staring glumly at the engine. 

Ben turned the wheel in a hard right, pulling to the side of her and rolling down the passenger side window.

“Rey!” He called out. “What’s going on?”

Her arms were crossed, cradling her elbows as she shivered through her thin jacket. Her hair fell in sopping curls around her face, sticking to her forehead and jaw. She looked pitiful, and half frozen, but her eyes softened when they fell on Ben. 

“I think it’s the battery,” she told him, shouting over the sound of his motor. 

“Get in so you can dry off. I’ll give you a ride home,” he said, unlocking the passenger side with a click.

She looked unsure. “It’s fine, Ben. I’ll just wait inside and call Rose.” 

“Rey, get in!” He insisted. He made up his mind that he wasn’t going to move the car until she took his offer. 

A roll of thunder rumbled in the distance, as if to punctuate his words. Sighing heavily, she shut the hood of her own car and opened the door to his. 

He was already turning the heat up to max when she slid onto the seat, the leather underneath her squeaking from rainwater. 

Ben gestured to the console. “That button there is for turning on the seat warmer, if you want.” 

Rey nodded, still hugging herself and shivering slightly. “Thanks.”

He wondered how long she had been out there. Her clothes were soaked through. She shed her jacket to absorb more of the heat, holding her pale fingers up to the vents. He had to fight to keep his eyes on the road when he noticed her nipples pointing through her pastel pink henley. 

_Just like old times,_ his shoulder devil snickered. 

She was the first to break the silence. “Well this is twice now you’ve rescued me. Do you do this for all your students?”

“Only the ones I like,” he replied sheepishly, then cringed when she turned her face away. He blundered forward, eager to cover his tracks. “Do you have someone to help you pick it up?” _Someone like a new boyfriend?_ “Cause I can jump you tomorrow if you need me to. Er...your car that is. Jumpstart your car.”

_Fuck, Solo, would you like a side of shoestring fries to go with that foot in your mouth?_

She didn’t respond to his gaffe - at least not verbally - but her eyes lingered a little too long on his lips. He hoped he wasn’t imagining it. 

“I’m sure either Rose or Kaydel can bring me. Believe it or not, I know a thing or two about handling a vehicle.” 

“Oh...I believe it.” 

He waited a beat to consider his next words carefully. “They seem like good roommates. If they’re busy though, my offer stands. If, you know, there’s no one else you can think to call, like a guy friend...”

“Ok, I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks.” 

She was so terse now, giving away nothing. How he longed for the flirty, take charge girl he met last summer. But that was his own fault, wasn’t it? He decided to change tactics.

“I didn’t see you around much over fall break, did you get in some R&R?”

She smiled at the memory. “Yeah, it was nice actually. The girls and I went camping in the mountains.”

He tried to keep his voice casual, but the rhythm was off. “Oh, just you three?”

“Actually, we picked up Rose’s boyfriend at the airport on the way up. He’s a real good bloke.”

_Rose’s boyfriend. _

Ben wanted to turn up the radio and sing. He wanted to pump his fist in the air. The guy he saw was with Rose, not Rey. It was all he could do to keep the grin from spreading over his face. 

“That sounds fun. I’m glad you had a good time.”

“Yeah. Hard to believe we’re over halfway done with the semester though, eh?”

It wasn’t for him. He had made up his mind that this was going to be his last school year letting his life pass him by. At this time next fall, he vowed to be pursuing something that made him happy - as soon as he figured out what that was.

They were almost to the neighborhood, Ben realized sadly. He didn’t want to say goodbye again. He eased his foot off the gas and allowed the car to coast. 

“Yeah, this one really flew by. That reminds me...how is your transfer application to Hoth coming along? It’s probably due soon, right?”

Rey groaned. “It’s...coming, I guess. And yes, it’s due next week actually. I’ve probably rewritten my essay ten times.”

“Oh, what’s it on?”

“You know college applications, they’re always so woo woo. The title is supposed to be, ‘Pursuing Your Passion.’” 

He gulped. Sometimes it really did feel like he was being secretly followed by reality TV cameras. 

“I could...uh, could help. If you wanted. And give you a recommendation. I’m an alumni.” He gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles whitened. 

Rey fingered at her wet hair, separating the strands. “I appreciate the offer, Ben, I really do, but I couldn’t ask you to.”

They had arrived. He pulled into her driveway and put it in park. Turning to her so she would hear the weight of his words, he looked sincerely into her clear hazel eyes. 

“You didn’t ask. I offered. Rey...listen. Despite how this semester started off, it was obvious to me right away that you have a gift for psychology. I’ve been teaching at Chandrilla for seven years and I can count on one hand the number of students who said they wanted to major in it - none of them as brilliant as you. You deserve to get into the program. And I know you can do it without my help, but I want to make it a little easier for you. Please.”

She drew a breath, and those pretty eyes widened. He thought he saw them glint with emotion, just a flash and then it was gone. She swallowed before speaking, almost a whisper. “Ok. I’d like that.” 

His smile was genuine. “Great. Send me a text when you decide on a good time?” And then, because he was feeling lighter than he had in weeks, he decided to add, “I know you have my number.”

Rey laughed, and the sound trickled through him, warming him to his toes. “That I do, Professor Solo. That I do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I really think I was going to be able to write a fic without any angst?? *applies clown makeup* At least I wrapped it up in one chapter. Next chapter...I hope you will be pleased ;)
> 
> Come say hello on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/reylohalo)!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Would you be mine, would you be my baby tonight?  
Cause I like you quite a lot, everything you got, don’t you know?  
It’s you that I adore, though I make the boys fall like dominoes.  
\- Lana Del Rey
> 
> PLEASE NOTE: Tags have been updated. This chapter we earn our rating.

There was no class the next day and Ben woke up in a great mood. He did some long overdue cleaning, and started reading a new book. His phone was resting on his stomach as he lay stretched on the sofa, and every few pages he would glance at the display. 

He was just about to finish the third chapter when he felt it vibrate. Snatching it up, his chest inflated. It was her. 

_ If you still want to help with my application, can you come over Thursday night? That will give me a few days to finalize it before it’s due. _

Ben tapped out three different replies before deleting each one. Finally, he settled on the right wording: not too casual, and not too eager. 

_ I can do Thursday. What time? _

He saved her contact information, putting a sunshine emoji next to her name. 

Rey 🌞: _ 7:30 would be great, gives me time to shower after work. Rose and Kaydel should be here too, so no worries there. _

The evolved side of his brain realized he had no idea where she worked. Actually, he knew very little about her at all. His monkey brain, however, didn’t get past the word “shower.” It was very confusing, sometimes, being male.

_ See you then! :) _ He sent back, and proceeded to spend the rest of the day second guessing his use of the smiley face. 

He felt like he had more game in high school. 

Still, he really did want to help her with the application. He meant what he said in the car; she would be a great asset to the Hoth psychology department. 

And, the sooner she transferred the sooner he could ask her for a second chance. She was still much younger than him, and he obviously had a lot to learn about her, but once he stopped being her professor there would be time to cross those bridges. He just had to hold out a little longer. 

His year of being brave started now.

* * *

The week crawled by, slowing to the pace of a dream state by the time Thursday arrived. Rey was punctual for class as usual, and more talkative than she had been in weeks. Ben had to admire her unique and well thought out points that often challenged him to consider the topic at hand in new ways. If only more of his students could engage like her. 

But then again, he wasn’t sure he could handle more than one Rey. He had barely kept his wits around this one, and there were still three weeks left in the term.

That evening he ate a light supper and took a long shower. He shaved - more than just his face - and scrubbed his thick mane of hair until it shined. Then he stood in front of his closet, debating on what to wear.

_ It’s not a date, _ his shoulder angel reminded him crossly.

He made a circle with his thumb and middle finger, and flicked the angel off like a mosquito, much to the devil’s delight. 

After deliberation, he settled on a pair of light brown pants and a red slim fit v-neck sweater. He wondered if he looked his age, or if it was just a feeling. He plucked a stray gray hair from his temple, and drew a breath.

_ Relax, Solo. You’re jumping the gun here. The term isn’t over and you don’t even know if she’s still interested. _

Ben checked his watch. 7:15. Would his eagerness be too apparent if he came over now? Maybe he should bring something with him. Wine was probably a bad idea. Did he have anything in the fridge? 

One limp bunch of celery and a take out container from Burrito Republic greeted him when he opened the door. Ok. So much for a snack offering.

He spent a few minutes checking his social media feeds, and then decided _ fuck it, let’s rip off the bandaid _. Locking the door behind him, he prepared to cross the street.

There was only one car parked in the driveway: Rey’s silver Toyota. Weren’t the others home?

Suddenly his nerves were back in full force. He knocked on the door. A minute passed with no answer, then two. Had she forgotten? Had she changed her mind?

He was just raising his hand to knock again when the door opened. There she was, in yoga pants and a baggy sweatshirt that looked like it once belonged to a guy. He couldn’t stop the image when it flashed in his mind: how would she look wearing _ his _ button up shirt and nothing else? 

Her hair was still wet from the shower, and she was toweling it off as she let him inside. He found that this was when she was the most irresistible: when she was stripped of any theatrics and he saw through to the real woman underneath. 

“Hey Ben! Excuse the state of me, you’re a bit early I think? I was just about to blow out my hair.” 

“Oh, uh, yeah. Sorry about that. I can wait if you need to...”

“Well it will take ages. Work ran late and traffic was bollocks.” 

She led him through the narrow hallway into the living room. There was a beat up leather sectional, a coffee table that almost certainly came from Ikea, and funky mod paintings on the walls. 

She saw him examining them. “Kaydel painted those, aren’t they bang up?”

“Yeah, definitely.”

“Well, have a seat and I’ll grab my laptop. Can I offer you a drink or some crisps?”

He sat down on the far end of the sectional. “I’m good, thanks.”

“Alright, I’ll be right back.”

She returned shortly and plopped down next to him. He had expected her to sit at the other end of the sofa but she didn’t seem to mind getting close. His palms felt sweaty, and he subtly wiped them on his pants. 

“Where, uh...where are your roommates?” He could smell strawberries again and realized it must be her shampoo. Her knee brushed against his as she turned to him.

“Oh...yeah, I’m sorry about that. They told me they were going to be here, but Kay got called into work and Rose’s parents surprised her with a visit so they’re at dinner.” She looked at him with wide eyes. “I really wasn’t trying to get you alone.”

Alone. With Rey. His student. In her house, on her sofa that was long enough to lay on. The full weight of the situation suddenly sank in.

He swallowed. “It’s fine. So, tell me what you’re having trouble with on your essay?”

“It just doesn’t really sound compelling to me. I guess I’m having trouble putting my thoughts into words.”

“OK. Well let me read over it and I can tell you what parts need to be stronger.”

She handed him the laptop with the open Google doc of her draft and he started to read. 

Rey played on her phone while she waited for him to finish. She reclined her feet on the coffee table, her delicate toenails painted a mint green. 

He got distracted imagining them hanging out together like this, her drinking a cup of tea with her feet in his lap, him massaging them while they watched TV. It was the first time his fantasies featured something non-sexual, and it startled him to realize his feelings were growing beyond that. 

“Uh, you know what? I would like that drink, actually, if you don’t mind?” He asked with a shake of his head, clearing his thoughts. 

“Oh, yeah sure. We’ve got water, tea, orange juice, and I think there’s some beer in there too.”

He wanted the beer, to relax and take the edge off the nervous energy of being close to her, but water was probably the safer bet. “Just water is fine, thanks.”

She got up to fetch it but that made it worse, because her ass looked so ripe in those damn yoga pants. 

Jesus, this was going just swimmingly.

_ Focus, Ben. Remember why you’re here. _

He returned his concentration to the essay, pausing just to take a sip of the water when she sat it down in front of him.

As soon as he really started reading, he was drawn in immediately. As she had said, the subject was “Pursuing Your Passion.” Here, in this essay, was a window into her mind he had never been granted, and he ate up every word. 

He learned things that surprised him, although looking back they made sense. 

Rey was raised in the British foster care system but ran away as a teenager and spent a few years homeless before she was granted a student visa to the US. Her Freshman year she attended a university upstate, but she couldn’t make tuition even with her scholarships. 

She was nearly deported after dropping out but finally allowed a waiver as long as she re-enrolled within a short window of time. That explained her transfer to the more affordable but far less prestigious Chandrilla Tech. Ben knew the school was trying to raise its profile the past few years and accepting more foreign students was one way to do this. 

The rest of the essay detailed her ambition to use her psychology degree to work with foster children who have experienced trauma. She wanted to prevent anyone else from suffering what she did, and it drove her to push through all the obstacles life had thrown in her way.

By the end, he had a painful lump forming in his throat. He couldn’t believe the resilience of the woman next to him. Inspiring didn’t cover it.

“Rey, I...” he started, honestly not sure he could offer any critique of what he read.

She was sitting with her legs folded up, hugging them to her chest. It was the first time he had seen her look nervous. He wished he could touch her then, not out of lust but for comfort. 

“This is why I wasn’t sure about you helping me,” she said, looking down and biting her lip. 

“What do you mean?” His heart squeezed in his chest.

“The way you’re looking at me right now. Like you want to hug me. I can’t stand it.”

“I don’t pity you, Rey, if that’s what you think. I’m in awe of you.” His last words came out breathy and low.

She met his eyes, searching for a lie. There was none. 

“Why do you believe in me, Ben? I’m nothing special.”

“Fuck, Rey. Do you really not see yourself? You’re brilliant, gorgeous, and talented. The whole package. You knock the breath out of me every time I’m around you. You’re pure magic.” 

He hadn’t meant to reveal all that, and he tamped down on the regret rising from his stomach. But she had to know. She had to see her own worth. 

“Thank you, Ben.” She pushed a lock of damp hair behind her ear. “You’re a really great professor, you know?”

Her hazel eyes took on a deep green in the lamp light. Her lips looked so soft.

“Is that all I am?” He rasped, barely conscious of what he was saying.

She leaned forward, just an inch. Her gaze was caught on his own mouth now. 

_ Signs of arousal, _ his academic brain told him, faintly and from a distance. 

“Is that all you want to be?” She murmured. 

It was now or never. Three weeks felt like an eternity, after countless days of telling himself no. 

He couldn’t wait anymore. 

Ben closed the gap between them, slowly until he felt her breath ghost against his skin. When their lips touched at last, the locked room where he had been imprisoning his hunger sprang open, and nothing was slow after that.

Rey dug her hands into his hair as though she were claiming him, and deep down he knew she was. She tugged at the nape of his neck while her forceful tongue spread his lips and explored the depths behind them. Her probing alternated with soft kitten licks, swirling and pressing, until he was dizzy from forgetting to breathe. 

“Rey,” he gasped in between her conquering kisses. He thought she wouldn’t stop, but she did for half a moment. “We have to...” the words were cut off again as she sealed her mouth to his, and was sliding her little hands under his sweater to touch his bare chest. 

“Ahhh, we have to set...some ground rules,” he managed to pant out. She was raking her nails down his pecs now, trails of sparks following behind. A few more minutes and he would forget his own name. 

She had his shirt raised to expose his stomach, having pushed him back against the arm of the sofa while she crawled seductively forward. From her hands and knees, ass raised and head down, she looked up into his eyes, tongue lazily tracing his abs. 

His erection already felt painful, and none of her clothes were even off. He groaned. 

“I won’t give you any special treatment in class,” he said, shutting his eyes tight when he felt her fingers wiggle into the waistband of his pants. 

“No one can know about us until the term is over,” he continued, punctuated by little gasps as she unbuttoned his fly and pulled down his zipper. 

She didn’t reply, but he hoped she was listening, because when his black jockey shorts came into view the head of his cock already threatened to peek over the elastic. There was no turning back now. 

“Oh professor,” she sighed. “Magnificent.”

The flattery lit the tips of his ears and he felt his cock pulse with need. 

She wanted him shirtless, and tugged the sweater over his head roughly. He sat up and at last began to reciprocate, pulling that baggy sweatshirt from her petite frame. 

She was braless, which caught him by surprise. He was expecting lacy lingerie, maybe, or even a sports bra from the way she was dressed but instead his reward was her bare tits, with wide pink areoles and little silver hoops through each of her perfect buds. 

His mouth must have been hanging open from the wicked grin she gave him. When she reached up and plucked her own nipples, tugging on the hoops and pinching them for show, he thought his soul might leave his body. 

He was suddenly glad for all the extra jerk off sessions he had indulged in over the past few months, or he knew this would be over too quickly. His little vixen was just getting warmed up and his endurance would be put to the test.

Her breasts looked so delicious, and he craved to get his mouth on them. It was a recurring fantasy of his ever since the day he saw her having the water balloon fight. Now they were right in front of him, totally exposed, and he was not going to waste his chance.

He shifted his position on the sofa, pulling Rey down to him by her underarms, positioning her beautiful tits so they dangled in front of his face. He had never seen pierced nipples in person and didn’t want to hurt her, so he started out more timidly than he would have liked, licking in slow circles around the erect tissue. The metallic taste of the hoop mingled with the warm heat of her skin, and her moans encouraged him on. 

“Harder, Ben. Suck on them,” she directed, so he increased the pressure of his lips. 

He used the size of his hands to frame them on either side, cupping and squeezing as he moved his mouth back and forth between each breast. Her nipples were so sensitive and responsive, he could spend hours feasting on them alone. When he felt emboldened by her reaction, he even pulled a little on the hoop, capturing it in his teeth. 

Rey keened above him, clawing at his hair and down his shoulders. He knew she was leaving him a souvenir and the idea of being marked by her thrilled him. 

As long as he could have focused on her breasts, there were other treasures waiting to be discovered. Ben slid his hands down her rib cage, tracing the flare of her waist and letting his grip settle on her hips. She moaned when he squeezed at the rounded bones beneath her skin, and he pulled her lower so their groins pressed together. 

Rey started to grind against him, undulating in a sexual rhythm while she planted her mound firmly against his hardon. He closed his eyes with a low hiss, wanting desperately to feel more of her skin. 

She gave him one of her infamous smirks when it was his own hands that pulled his pants down, kicking his shoes off and freeing his hardened thighs.

He had jumped in the deep end, and he had no thought now of right or wrong, only dreams of being milked dry by her tight cunt and hungry mouth. 

She was happy to oblige. 

Rey traced the outline of his erection through his underwear, and Ben was embarrassed to see that his hips bucked involuntarily upward at her touch. 

“You’re such a cocktease,” he groaned. “All this time trying to get me naked and now you draw it out.”

She leaned her face down and inhaled his scent, as though it were expensive perfume. “I’d given up on this ever happening. I want to savor you, Ben.”

Every word from her gorgeous lips pushed him further to the edge. He had waited, held back, barely restrained himself, and now...he had to have her or he would go insane.

With one hand he tore his underwear down, his engorged cock bobbing forward. With the other he gripped at her hair and pulled her mouth toward him. 

She had no choice but to open wide and take him into her throat. That first sensation of wetness and heat almost made him lose control. 

His toes were curling, and his eyes were rolling back. He still guided her head up and down his length, but she was doing the work now. Licking and slurping like she did to the lollipop that day in class, the day she sent him the upskirt pic. 

Now he thought about how he would get to see her bare pussy soon, get to touch it and fuck it as he had yearned to do, and he pumped his hips faster into her mouth.

She took it like a champ, saliva running down the corners of her mouth but never slowing. She built up a rhythm that had him moaning her name, wild with lust. 

Finally, she pulled away with a wet ‘pop,’ and sat back on her heels, wiping her lips with the back of her hand.

A creeping flush spread over his cheeks when he realized how rough he’d been. “I’m sorry, Rey,” he said raggedly, still breathing heavily from the incredible blow job. “I don’t know what came over me.”

“Don’t apologize,” she told him, looking into his eyes from beneath her dark lashes. “Don’t you ever apologize. Don’t you know how eager I was to get my mouth on this cock?”

She was too good to be true - or was that too bad to be true? 

“Well now it’s my turn,” he countered, sitting up so he could guide her back to the other end of the sectional. He laid her down gently, squeezing his eyes shut when she reached up to stroke his dick. 

“Let me take care of you,” he rumbled. 

She grinned. “I thought you’d never ask.”

Eagerly, he peeled off her yoga pants, like unwrapping a present on Christmas morning. When he saw what she was wearing, he suppressed a moan. It was the little black thong she had on when she sent him the picture - the one he had jerked off to more times than he’d care to admit. 

He could see the detail now that it wasn’t obscured by clever lighting and filters. The band was lace, letting hints of her creamy hips peek through, and the triangle that covered her mound was satin. 

He stroked at her center through the thin material, reveling in her delicious response. She spread her legs, inviting him closer, and he tried to commit every moment to memory. 

“Maybe I _ should _ tease you a bit longer,” he chuckled, suddenly enjoying the game. “It would only be fair.”

“Only one of us can go for multiples, so tease all you like if you think you can stand it.” 

All coquettishness faded away, she was as on target as ever. He shook his head. He’d never win against her, not in this arena. Better to give in.

It wasn’t a hardship. Or rather, it _ was _, but a welcome one. 

He pulled her panties down her slim thighs, finally revealing her gorgeous pussy to his gaze. She was shaved totally bare, every dip and fold open and exposed. Ben suddenly felt _ ravenous _. 

Pushing her thighs even further apart with his massive hands, he dove his face down to taste her wetness. It had been quite some time since he performed cunnilingus, but for once he had no doubts about his abilities. Anything he lacked in rusty technique he knew he would make up for in enthusiasm, because he didn’t intend to come up for air until she was writhing beneath him and crowing his name. 

He guessed that a girl like her was not looking for gentle, so he wasted no time corkscrewing a finger inside her tight opening while the flat of his tongue lapped hungrily at her lips and clit. His instinct was rewarded. She started grinding on his hand immediately, canting her hips so his face was pushed against her, fucking herself onto his hand. 

“More,” she demanded, soaking his palm already. 

He added another finger, intertwined around the first to mimic a phallus. Her sex looked so tiny stretched around his two thick digits, but after a few strokes it was sliding in and out as easily as the first had. 

He quickened his rhythm, bracing one elbow on the sofa for more leverage, while his mouth remained firmly sealed around her cunt. He traced the ridges and valleys with the point of his tongue, slithering against her little hood and coaxing it back. When he sensed she was nearing the crest, he sucked on the hard pearl itself, with more force than he would have dared with another lover. 

But he could feel Rey needed the edge, needed to push the limits by the way she was pulling at his hair and clawing his back. 

Her cries reached a fever pitch, and she was chanting a litany of curses. _ OhfuckOhBenOhshitGoddamn _...Watching her come apart was pure bliss. She threw her head back into the couch, balling her tiny fists and nearly beating on his shoulder blades while her body spasmed with joy. 

At last, following the final gush onto his face, her babbling subsided into ragged panting. Only then did he lift his head, the proud owner of knowledge he would never forget: the way she sounded, the way she moved, when she came upon his tongue. 

He sat back on his heels, lazily stroking his cock while she collected her energy, enjoying to see that in this moment all the fight had drained out of her. She had been calling his bluff for months, and he had delivered. It was enough to go to a man’s head.

Finally she propped herself up, grinning like the cat that ate the canary. “Bravo,” she praised him, and the roles had once again reversed. 

“I think you deserve a reward,” she purred. “I’m gonna let you pick the first position.”

_ First _? Ben pretty much had experience with one position and the occasional spooning thrown in. If she expected him to last while thrusting doggy style into a tight 22 year old pussy, well that was the nativity of youth. 

But damn if he didn’t owe it to himself to try. 

“On your knees and turn around,” he barked, trying to sound more sure than he felt. 

“Yes Sir,” she said with a wink, moving to comply. Her beautiful ass, which he had so often seen wiggling in her infuriatingly large collection of mini skirts, was now bare and pointing directly at him.

Then it hit him: he hadn’t thought to bring a condom. The bravado vanished. “Uh, Rey, I don’t...I didn’t think...uh, do you have a condom here?”

Looking over her shoulder, she smiled sweetly. “Thanks for asking, but I really want to feel you. I’m on the pill and have a clean bill of health. You?” 

“Well not on the pill but yes, the other thing...”

“Great, that’s settled. Now are you going to give me that cock or do I have to take it?”

Ben gave her a quick slap on the ass. “Someone’s bossy when they’re horny.”

“You love it,” she countered, and she wasn’t wrong.

He leaned with one knee beside her and braced the other leg on the floor, allowing him to sink low enough to line up his cock with her entrance. He pushed gently forward, wedging just the head inside her slit. She was drenched, and not a virgin like his last partner, but this was something he knew he couldn’t rush. 

She sighed when she felt him enter, and her inner walls squeezed against his sensitive crown. Already waves of warmth were crashing through him, still a long way from the finish line. He pushed forward again, to a fourth of his length.

“Give it to me, Ben, I can handle it. I’m not going to bloody break.” 

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I’ll let you know when I’ve had enough. And right now I’m telling you to fuck me like I know you want to.”

Who could argue with that?

Ben speared in again, full to the hilt this time and Rey gasped when he bottomed out. He stilled a moment, fearing she had overestimated, but was amazed to see her greedy hips rocking up and down his shaft. 

Wildly aroused, he began to fuck her in earnest, and allowed himself to sink into the incredible feeling of her tight cunt gripping him. 

“Oh God, Rey, feels so fucking good,” he moaned.

“I just knew that cock would fill me up. Harder, professor, I need it harder!”

He had to fight against letting go right then, and hold out a little longer. He grit his teeth and sank his hands into her hips, leaving wide finger marks on her skin. He was slamming her down against him now, and she grunted with each thrust. 

“Fuck...yes!”

After a few more minutes of a blistering pace, he had to slow down if he had any hope of continuing on.

She whimpered when he pulled out, and the disappointment in her eyes cut him. He kissed her to wipe it away, sitting her astride his lap. Soon enough she had worked him back inside her, straddling his thick thighs with her limber young body. 

Barriss always needed a minute to get used to the stretch of him, but Rey seemed to _ like _ it. He watched in awe at the junction of their centers as his cock disappeared inside her tiny pussy. She was bouncing on it now, pushing down on his shoulders to control the angle and speed she wanted. 

He felt like her toy, and he had to admit it was a huge turn on.

“God you’re beautiful,” he murmured, staring at her little tits jostling high on her chest. The way the silver hoops flicked up with her movements was mesmerizing. 

She didn’t answer, only rode him faster, chasing her second dose of bliss. He closed his eyes, and focused on the wet heat pumping over his shaft, pulling him closer and closer to climax. 

“Come with me,” she pleaded, her voice like warm honey in his ear.

The sofa was creaking beneath them, the smell of sex heavy in the air. Beads of sweat collected on her chest, and he leaned forward to swipe them away with his tongue. 

That seemed to be the push she needed, her moans pitching higher and more frantic. He felt her pussy spasm and squeeze around him; despite her assertion that she was on the pill, he had fully planned to pull out - that plan, like all the ones he had made concerning her, went up in a puff of smoke. 

“Oh God...fuck, Rey, I’m gonna come,” he cried, a warning given too late. 

He spurt shot after shot of cum deep inside her until at last his balls were empty and sated. Every muscle in his body felt slack. Time ceased to exist. The only sensation was her slick walls fluttering and milking out every last drop. 

It was a high he wished to never come down from. But at last, of course, he did. 

Rey disentangled herself from him, leaving him to melt into the leather sofa, boneless and breathless. When she returned wearing a clean pair of pajamas, he smiled at her sheepishly. 

“Well...I hope it was worth waiting for,” he said.

Her fingers traced slow circles on his bare chest. “Absolutely. But now we have to make up for lost time.” To prove her point, she pulled his head down for another scorching kiss. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We finally made it to the smut! Thanks for hanging in there this long with me. We have one more chapter of sin and then we will finally be at our conclusion! I appreciate all your nice comments and kudos through this story, and especially those of you who came back after the 9 month break to read it. <3


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Tags have been updated again*
> 
> "You're looking my way, you're looking good  
Needs no explaining, it's understood  
Electric shivers, across my skin  
It's like a fever, and you're my only medicine"  
\- Reactor

When he finally said goodnight to Rey, his mind was racing with jumbled thoughts. He really hadn’t intended to lose control, but God had it felt good to let the muzzle off for once in his life. He experienced a wild sense of freedom, like anything was possible, the danger only adding to the allure. Was this the way she felt every day, flouting the rules and living according to her own whims? 

  


He promised himself he wasn’t going to overthink it this time. Three weeks would go by in a blink of an eye, and then they could see each other like normal people. Go to dinner, talk on the phone, have some fun with their clothes on. And in the meantime...they would just need to be discrete.

  


Class the next day was like tortuous deja vu, snapping his thoughts back to the time of their early cat and mouse. Her bedroom eyes were back in full force, as were the short skirts that teased the promise of feminine secrets below. 

  


Except this time, he knew exactly what she was barely concealing from view - knew how it tasted, how it felt when it was slick and pliant around his cock. And on this particular morning, he knew that his cum would be dripping out of her little by little, a slow reminder of their rendezvous tickling her tender thighs. 

  


It made the task of focusing on the finer points of Attachment Theory nearly impossible. There was only one thing he wanted to be attached to right now, and it was between Rey’s shapely legs. 

  


When she gave him a surreptitious wink on her way out the door, he worked up the nerve to send her a text. 

  


_ My place tonight at 8? _

  


Rey 🌞:  _ Looking forward to it. Any special requests? _

  


The mind boggled. He thought back to all the outfits she’d used to torture him over the semester, hardly believing that he now had the chance to rip them off her as he had been so desperate to do. 

  


_ Wear your hair in pigtails and I’ll show you what I wanted to do to you the first day of class.  _

  


Rey 🌞:  _ Yes, Sir. _ 💦

  


They met almost every day after that, at his place for afternoon quickies in between his classes, at her place when her roommates were at work, and once even in his car under cover of darkness. The risk was intoxicating, and he felt he would never grow tired of burying himself into her hot squirming body, or of hearing her pant out his name as she bucked through an orgasm.

  


As the last day of class crept closer, though, a new fear was crawling into his mind. Once the semester ended, would Rey truly have an interest in trying to make this work? The sex was phenomenal, the best of his life, but he was past the stage of building a relationship on that alone. 

  


Their age difference was a canyon between them, but he was willing to try and build a bridge. Each time they met up, he tried to draw a little more out of her, to learn as much about her dreams as he did her desires. She was often guarded during pillow talk - proving his earlier theory about papering over emptiness with a cover of confidence - but he made small strides to see behind the curtain. 

  


She was bold, and complex, and much stronger than she knew - he could only hope that she would be able to see him as more than a passing fancy; as someone she could come to trust. 

  


If not...well he didn’t like to think about it. He had experienced a taste of what living life to the fullest could be, and he wasn’t eager to go back to his diet of stale days and flavorless nights. 

  


Then it arrived, the day of their final exam. He had kept to his rule, not letting Rey in on what the questions might be or giving special grading curves, and this eased his conscience when the guilt over fucking his student slithered in. Although, when she had suggested a study session modeled after strip poker - him surrendering one piece of clothing for every answer she got right - he was in no position to refuse her. Positive reinforcement was the best way to facilitate learning, after all. 

  


Ben sat at his desk, waiting as each student finished their tests and came to to turn them in. 

  


“Thank you, have a good winter break,” he told each of them in a low voice. 

  


One by one, they came and went, until only a small group remained. Most of those who were left were the students more challenged by the course material, who had needed extra help throughout the term. That was why he was surprised to see that Rey was still sitting in her seat, chewing cutely on the end of her pen as she considered her next answer. 

  


He quirked a curious eyebrow towards her, but she kept her eyes on her test. 

  


Last night she had aced every flashcard he presented, quickly leaving him buck naked on her bed. That meant her reward shifted to binding one of his limbs to the wooden posts until at last she had to hold the cards in front of his eyes to read them. 

  


This proved exceedingly difficult with his cock jutting in the air, rock hard and leaking for her. But it would go on leaking, unsated, because after the last question was answered, she rode out her victory straddling his face as he lay writhing helplessly beneath her. In the end she made him beg for her to suck him off and he had done it, whimpering like a dog when he finally came. 

  


His train of thought was now a fiery wreck hurtling off a cliff. 

  


He looked up to realize that the rest of the students had turned in their papers and left while he was staring out into space. Rey was the only one still sitting in the classroom, and when he finally caught her gaze she returned it in her predatory way. 

  


Sauntering slowly from her desk, she held out her exam. They had made it, the official end of the semester. So where did they go from here? 

  


His mind flashed back to the first time she had approached him, when he tried to convince her to drop the class. He had been so nervous, stumbling over his words, his skin a topography of goosebumps. She looked at him then in a similar manner as she was now, daring and determined, like she was seeing a mountain she wanted to climb. 

  


A fitting metaphor, he supposed. 

  


“How was it?” He asked, taking her paper and putting it with the pile. 

  


“Hard,” she replied, licking her lips and bracing herself on his chair with one fishnet clad thigh.

  


“Not here,” he rumbled, as much to her as to his own cock, which had very much gotten the message that school was decidedly out. 

  


“Yes, here,” Rey insisted, leaning down to plant a wet kiss on the shell of his ear.

  


“Let’s go home,” he offered with a shiver. “Get you out of those clothes.”

  


“I have a better idea.” Her eyes were shining wickedly. He braced himself for what came next.

  


Like a cat on the hunt, she sprang back from his chair, causing it to rotate a half circle until he stretched out his leg and stopped the momentum. Rey was already to the classroom door, locking it.

  


“Rey, no. Come on, we talked about this. We have to be just professor and student on campus.” The control was already spinning out of his hands. 

  


“But we’re not professor and student, not anymore,” she grinned, crossing back to where he sat, hitching her dress up with every step. 

  


“We are until the final grades are in,” he countered, but weakly, his eyes locked to her rising hemline. 

  


She wasn’t wearing panties. 

  


Blood was now coursing down to his groin, abandoning the areas of his brain where he needed it most. Damn her and her perfect body. 

  


Rey sat back on his desk, pushing aside the exams and assorted office supplies, and she spread her legs wide. The fishnet tights had no sewn in crotch, just thin black webbing separating him from her most sensitive areas. 

  


Ben glanced nervously at the door, knowing there wouldn’t be another period in here for forty five minutes, and praying the next professor didn’t plan to arrive early to set up. 

  


_ A quickie it is, _ his shoulder devil leered with delight.

  


_ I give up, _ sighed the angel.

  


He returned his attention to Rey, who was rubbing herself through the textured stockings, her flushed labia looking gorgeously puffy as they strained against the netting. Ben adjusted his cock in his pants, and surrendered.

  


He started to peel off the fishnets but she smacked at his hand and shook her head no. 

  


“Then how...?” He asked.

  


“You’re a smart boy, you’ll figure it out,” she teased, canting her hips up. 

  


He could smell her arousal, and it was like fuel to the fire of his own.

  


Ben knelt down, eyes level with Rey’s cunt. He stuck his middle finger in his mouth, wetting it slowly, and then he used the holes in the fabric to his advantage. 

  


Turning his hand upward, he started to finger fuck her through the tights, the constriction meaning he had to keep his digit stiff, and push harder to work it in and out of her shuddering slit. 

  


Rey tossed her head back, losing herself in the debauchery of being taken in a public classroom, perched on her professor’s desk. 

  


“You’re such a dirty girl, letting me finger this pussy where anyone could see us.” 

  


“Mmm yes, I am a dirty girl. Your dirty girl, professor. You want to fuck this filthy tramp, don’t you?”

  


He moaned at her wicked words, her accent driving him wild with her cunt clenched around his finger. He forced his index finger through her clothing now, working it into her slippery opening. The separation of space between the netting meant he had to keep his fingers stacked, rather than intertwining them as he normally would. This had the effect of stretching her out, which she clearly seemed to love. 

  


Ben could feel an amazing contrast of textures: the silky smooth glide of her wet center, hot and gripping as he entered, and the rough friction of her tights biting into his hand as he pulled back. His other hand reached down and withdrew his cock, and began pumping along the shaft in rhythm with his thrusting into Rey.

  


“God I love your cock,” she moaned. “I can’t wait to have it inside me.”

  


His eyes fluttered shut, growing drunk on her sexy talk alone. 

  


On the last thrust, he withdrew his fingers, replacing them now with his tongue. She spread her legs impossibly wider, opening like a feast for him, and he lapped at the coarse fabric again and again.

  


Rey seemed to love the added friction, keening when he pressed the string taught over her clit with his mouth, using suction to apply pressure from the outside. Her hands were fisted into his hair, calves now resting on his back as he continued to crouch behind the desk, burying himself deeper between her legs. 

  


His tongue wriggled into every space provided, swirling over her engorged clit before pulling back to fuck into her drooling opening, the tights now a wet mess. In some places the thread was becoming thin, and this presented another tantalizing possibility.

  


When she was on the crest of a massive orgasm, he suddenly stood up but kept his hands braced on her inner thighs. Gripping his fingers into the gaps, he pulled outward and in one fluid motion, ripped the smaller network of holes into one large hole, baring her completely and giving him access to fuck her properly. 

  


Rey squealed with delight at his demonstration of strength, pulling him in for a deep kiss. Between their bodies, he lifted his cock and guided it into her wet center. 

  


There was no need for pretense. She was slick with need, and he knew their time was short. Grabbing her hips roughly, he began pumping at a rapid pace, Rey’s ass rocking back slightly with each thrust.

  


“God, Rey, you drive me crazy,” he groaned into her ear. 

  


“Harder, Ben. Show me what you want,” she urged him forward.

  


Soon the pressure was too much. He hooked her legs over the crook of his elbows, spreading her into a V and fucking his full length into her scorching slit, biting back curses under his breath.

  


Rey was rubbing her clit and telling him how sexy he looked, and the threat of being exposed in public was so dangerously erotic. He came thunderously, his balls contracting with each gush of semen they ejected and leaving him weak in the knees. 

  


Ben braced himself on the desk, red faced and panting not just from exertion but also from the power of his climax, dazed as the feeling slowly returned to his limbs. 

  


Rey stretched out on his desk luxuriously, arching her back. Already cum was dripping onto the wood, a surreal picture that would be forever branded in his mind. 

  


He glanced at the clock. Thirty minutes until the next period. There was still time to clean up the evidence. Maybe Rey had some perfume they could spray to cover their scent. 

  


“What about me?” She asked, jarring him from his thoughts. 

  


_ Oh God. _ He may have cum like a tidal wave, but she was still unfulfilled. In his rush to finish, he had neglected to look after her needs. He felt like a colossal ass. 

  


“I...”

  


She was pouting. “That’s not very fair.”

  


“I’m - I’m sorry, sweetheart, I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

  


“Oh, I know you will,” she said, grabbing his hair and pushing down. She spread her legs again. “With your mouth.”

  


Ben’s eyes widened. “But...I already came in you. And we really can’t stay here, the next professor will probably be here any minute.”

  


“Then you should probably get to work.”

  


A shiver went through him. She was so  _ commanding _ . He had never in a million years ever considered tasting his own cum. But he did owe her, and he knew her well enough to know her ass wasn’t leaving that desk until she got what she wanted. He sighed and resigned himself to expanding his horizons.

  


He knelt again, moving slowly towards her parted thighs. Her pussy was a sticky mess, their shared juices mingled within and without. He could tell just by looking - as though he hadn’t experienced it firsthand - that she had been well fucked: her labia was flushed and swollen, and her clit was peeking out of its hood. Tucked safely back in his khakis, he felt his boner stir back to life. 

  


No time like the present.

  


Timidly, he stuck his tongue out and started with the top of her mound, tickling her clit with just the pointed tip. She squeezed his shoulders, letting him know he was headed in the right direction. So far it tasted the same as usual, and he began to relax. 

  


After a few minutes of sucking and licking his way through her folds, he felt brave enough to breach her drenched opening, where his spend and her slick flowed copiously. It was slightly salty and thicker than he expected, but there was something hot - and a little fucked up - about tasting himself straight from her beautiful pussy. 

  


As he lapped into her, his fingers stroked her erect clit and it wasn’t long before she was grinding against his face in earnest. She clamped her legs tightly around his head, thighs pressed to his ears and hands pulling him closer. He worked at her body like a madman, both racing the clock and hoping to give her as big of an orgasm as she had given him. 

  


“Fuck, Ben...yes, yes, yes,” she chanted, spiraling higher toward release.

  


When he reached up to twist her nipple at the same time he sucked her clit tightly between his lips, she surrendered to the pleasure. Ben held her close while she shuddered in his arms, then drew back to wipe his mouth. 

  


“Happy now?” He rumbled.

  


“Very,” she said with a grin. 

  


Her tights were ruined, so she shimmied them off and stuffed them into her purse. Rearranging her dress and hair, she was preparing to leave. 

  


A sudden panicked thought struck him. Was this the last time they would see each other, beyond glimpses across the street? The term was over and nothing was settled.

  


“Rey, wait,” he called. 

  


She turned, looking expectant. 

  


“Now that the semester is over...ah...that is, well we haven’t really talked about what’s next?”

  


“Next?”

  


He looked to his hands to avoid meeting her eye. “Yeah, next. For...for you. And me.”

  


“Oh...I guess we should talk.”

  


He didn’t find encouragement in her tone, but he had to press forward. It was the promise he made to himself. “Yeah, I think so. Can I...take you to dinner, maybe?”

  


“Dinner. I don’t know, Ben. I told you last week they accepted my transfer.”

  


“Yeah and I was thrilled to hear it.”

  


“I know you were. What I didn’t mention was that I think I’ve decided to live on campus. It’s a long commute, and I want that experience, you know?”

  


His heart sank. “That makes sense. You’re young. Of course you’d want to be young. But it’s only an hour...I could still drive up to you sometime.”

  


She walked back to him, and put her finger under his chin to tilt it upwards, cutting through his veil of shyness. “You’re a true gentleman, Benjamin Solo.”

  


His heart squeezed, then fluttered wildly in his chest. “That’s what you deserve, Rey.”

  


She smiled in disbelief and shook her head, but her eyes crinkled at the edges. “How about coffee?”

  


“I can do coffee.”

  


“OK. Meet me tomorrow then at the Java Hut. Around 3?”

  


“I’ll be there.”

  


She gave him a wink, and a kiss on the cheek, and then he watched as she unlocked the door and left the room. 

  


He couldn’t have planned for this if he tried. Meeting someone like her, who burned like a supernova in his dark and starless sky. But now that he knew she existed, he had to do whatever it took to keep her. Ben felt the grip of indecision loosen, releasing him from his many fears. He wanted this. He wanted her. 

  


He would find a way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I originally had the end come after the last chapter but since you all waited so long for the smut I thought I'd give you an extra treat before we wrap things up. Hard to believe we're almost done! Thank you for all the lovely comments, kudos, and recs/retweets on Twitter.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “You're the cure, you're the pain  
You're the only thing I wanna touch  
Never knew that it could mean so much”  
\- Ellie Goulding

Rey drummed her lacquered crimson nails on the coffee shop table. She couldn’t be nervous, could she?

No. He would come, she was sure of it. They always did.

What was surprising was the realization that she _cared_ if he showed up or not.

There was never any shortage of men willing to give her attention. Money, too, in many cases. Rey was familiar with these types and could spot them instantly when walking into a room. They were the kind that a flash of cleavage and some flattering words was all it took to have them tripping over themselves. She knew she could take whatever she wanted - she just had to find the right strategy.

But these were a means to an end. Scratching an itch, putting food in her belly, or keeping up appearances necessary to reel in the next fish, these were her main objectives. It certainly wasn’t for love.

So discovering what Ben was asking of her was something entirely different - vulnerability - and discovering that as much as her instincts told her to _run_ she was inexplicably drawn in further, was unfamiliar territory.

Vulnerable was a thing she had been, once. Innocent too. But that doesn’t last long in a world spinning on the axis of phallic law. So she learned to get her kicks by turning their own game against them.

She just hadn’t realized until recently that Ben had changed the rules.

Rey wouldn’t pretend that their first meeting was anything but lust at first sight. His body said he could have his way with her without breaking a sweat, but his gentleness said he would in fact be eating out of her hand. A perfect combination of porn star and puppy dog that Rey found irresistible. And there had been no doubt in her mind that he wouldn’t be able to resist _her_.

But he surprised her. She was used to being fawned over, used to being wined and dined. She was not used to being intrigued - or being valued for more than her body.

She was far from convinced it would work out, and she was almost able to walk away. But something in his voice on the last day of class made her hopeful, against all her better judgment.

If it didn’t work out, she mused, at least she could enjoy bouncing on his fat cock a while longer. You had to pull down a lot of trousers to find a prick that nice.

She checked the time on her cell phone to confirm what she already knew. He wasn’t late, she was early. She liked to command the first impression, it made everything that followed much easier. The power of the primacy bias. Using her front-facing camera, she touched up her lipstick and sat up straight.

A few minutes later, she saw him. He held the door open for an elderly woman, then stood there awkwardly as two other patrons walked through it, trapping him by the entrance longer than he intended.

Finally, stepping inside, he combed back his hair with his fingers and tugged down the hem of his black sweater. What a good boy.

“Ben!” She called, waving and shining the spotlight of her smile his way.

He shuffled over, in that clumsy yet controlled manner so unique to him.

He sat down across from her and offered her a shy greeting. She still sensed nervousness on his part, and she reached over to stroke his hand reassuringly. His shoulders relaxed, pleasing her to see. It was Pavlovian, the way he reacted to her touch: reflexive and instantaneous.

What she hadn’t expected were the little sparks of pleasure zinging through her own body.

“I’m glad you came,” he said softly.

She arched a brow. “You thought I wouldn’t?”

“You’re not exactly predictable,” he chuckled. “Can I get you something?”

“Sure, thank you. I’ll have a peppermint tea.”

“You got it.” He smiled and his crooked front tooth appeared at the edge of his mouth. It was pretty cute, actually.

When he returned with their drinks, she noticed her name was spelled correctly on the cup. He must have told the barista how, because without fail she always got _Ray_.

The warmth she felt was not just from the tea.

“So listen,” he began. “I’ve been thinking a lot and I want to do things the right way. The last few weeks have been...well, phenomenal, but I haven’t been able to give you the attention I’d like to.” He pushed a stray lock of hair off his forehead. “You deserve a lot more than secret hookups.”

Straight to the point. She could respect that. “Doesn’t it bother you that I’m a decade younger, or that I’ll be staying an hour away?”

He worried his jaw, seeming to choose his words carefully. “Honestly...sometimes it does. Sometimes it scares me. But Rey, that’s what’s wonderful about you. I needed to be scared, to be shaken up. I know we haven’t had the chance to get to know each other as well as we should, but there are things in my past that made me want to numb myself out. It was working - until you.”

Her breath caught in her lungs. How was he so able to lay himself bare this way? Didn’t he know that was how you opened yourself up to crushing disappointment?

“You don’t know me, the real me. No one does.” She looked down at her drink.

He paused, waiting until her eyes were on him again. His expression was resolute. “But I do. I know that you’re smart, and determined as hell, and I know there’s no one else like you. The rest we can find out together.”

There was that penetrating gaze again. The one that peered behind her mask and found the beauty in the chaos. She had set out to steal some kisses and ended up stealing his heart. That part wasn’t unfamiliar - breaking hearts was a regular Tuesday morning for her. What was different was the little voice that whispered, _Let_ _him_ _into_ _yours_.

It was too much.

“What if you don’t like what you find?”

He chuckled. “I’m pretty sure that won’t happen. But trust goes two ways. You have to let me be the one to decide that, instead of thinking you can make the decision for me. If you can do that...if you can try...”

He squeezed her hand in his large palm, wrapping his thumb around to stroke the delicate bones on the backside.As if reading her mind, he continued on. “I’m not so used to being an open book myself. I’ve got some stretching to do, too. All I’m asking for is a chance. After all, you went through a lot of trouble to get me here. Aren’t you the least bit curious?”

Rey smiled; not coquettish, or devious, or seductive. Just a genuine smile of happiness. “I guess you’re right - you did give me quite the chase. Maybe it’s time we stopped to catch our breath.”

He lifted her knuckles to his lips, pressing them smoothly to her skin with a wink. “Now where’s the fun in that?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for following along with this story! I really appreciate everyone who took the time to read, give kudos or comment. It means the world to small authors like myself. I am strongly considering adding an epilogue to this, but it’s not written yet and may be a bit. But who knows!


End file.
